Fate of Legends
by JaffaArchfiend
Summary: Monsters from legend are being discovered. The world of Monster Hunter is constantly changing. This follows the legend of a band of four hunters as they travel through this changing world and the discoveries they make.
1. Welcome to Minegarde

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Hi there. This is my new fanfic based on what me and my mates do in the Monster Hunter games for the PSP. I may have to make up several events but knowing how things end up when we play the game, they probably would be like the actual events. So do read and review and enjoy. Just so I don't have to say it at the beginning of every chapter I don't own Monster Hunter or anything to do with it (except you know the PSP game that you can get in shops.) When it comes to monsters that are in Freedom Unite, I'll be using the original names from Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. For the most part. Now enjoy!

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**Monster Hunter**

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**Chapter 1: Welcome to Minegarde**

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_Welcome to the world of Monster Hunter. _

_The lands of Minegarde, Schrade, and the Furahiya Mountains, along with many other regions have been plagued with monsters of all sorts of creatures and monsters._

_It is the duty of several brave warriors to hunt down these monsters and protect the various towns and villages throughout the land. They are all united by a Guild that monitors all monster activity and then informs any nearby hunters of any available missions with the help of the Elder Dragon Observation Center._

_This Observation Center keeps track of all the Elder Dragons in the region and sends out notices whenever any Elder Dragons get close to the populated regions._

_Now we join a group of hunters who are currently hunting a wyvern that has been harassing a nearby village. And are about to get a nasty surprise._

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In a nearby area of forests and hills, a roar echoed throughout the trees.

"Why does this always happen to me?!" yelled a man wearing full Tigrex S armour.

A Rathalos was currently chasing the man.

"Now guys!" he shouted diving forward as a fireball shot out of the Rathalos' mouth. It just missed him.

There was suddenly a bright flash and the Rathalos stumbled backwards.

Three more hunters appeared from their hiding places and started smashing into the wyvern with their Greatswords and Hammer.

One wore full Rathalos Soul U, one wore Diablos U, whilst the other wore a mixture of Rathalos S and Rathian S.

The Tigrex armoured hunter stood up and charged at the Rathalos with his longsword.

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After 10 minutes the Rathalos was slain. All four hunters were sitting on top of it, drinking an orange fluid out of their hip flasks.

"Why do I always have to be the bait?" asked the hunter wearing the Tigrex armour.

"Because Steven, the wyverns just seem attracted to you for some reason that's why." said a hunter with black spiky hair and Diablos U.

"Yeah, what Grant said." said the brown haired hunter in a mish mosh of Rathalos and Rathian armour.

"Listen, next time you can be the bait Alisdair." said Steven pointing at his brother.

"Oh, but the wyverns just _love _you!" Alisdair said laughing.

Steven then grabbed Alisdair's head and started giving him a noogie.

"All right. We can sort out bait duty later. Let's just start heading back and get paid." said the last hunter wearing the full Rathalos Soul U.

He patted the butt of his sword on top of the dead Ratholos' head.

"Right Stuart." said Alisdair.

They all then heard a roar from behind them.

"I thought you said there wasn't any other wyvern's in the area?" asked Alisdair looking around.

Steven closed his eyes. His armour granted him the ability to track wyverns and any other large monster, an ability that has proved very handy in the past.

"I can't sense any others in the area. Then again....it could be a Chameleos." said Steven.

"Chameleos! I hate those things!" said Grant readying his Hammer.

All four of the hunters jumped off of the Rathalos and repositioned themselves in the field.

"Can't you get a better fix on it's location?" asked Stuart.

"Sorry, I can't." Steven said shaking his head. "Chameleos are the only creatures that I can't get a real lock on. I can tell you its general location, but for all I know it could be right behind us."

"Great." said Stuart in a long voice.

All four of them stood back to back facing in four different directions, weapons at the ready.

"Anyone got any flashes on them?" asked Alisdair. "We can flush it out that way."

"That would only work if we knew which way it was facing." said Grant.

"We could all start swinging randomly until one of us hits the bastard." suggested Steven.

"Yeah, or we could end up exposing our backs to the Dragon and getting ourselves killed." replied Stuart.

"Umm, anyone else seeing bits of the Rathalos going missing?" asked Grant.

All four looked at the carcass and saw that chunks of meat were being torn off and vanishing.

"I think we just found it." said Alisdair.

Sure enough the Chameleos shimmered in and out of view.

All four of them charged at the Chameleos and started slashing at it.

It lost it's invisibility and they could see that it looked badly wounded.

It lashed out with that long tongue of its and started to beat its tail on the ground at the same time.

It generated enough wind to push back the hunters.

Grant, ignoring the wind thanks to his armour's ability, dove forward and sliced of the Chameleos' tail.

It screamed in pain, and lunged forward and then vanished.

"Okay now were did it go?" asked Alisdair.

"Over there!" Grant said pointing at some green smoke coming out of thin air.

They all rushed forward and started to slice into the Chameleos again.

It lost invisibilty again and then collapsed on the ground.

It was dead.

"OK, someone want to tell me why a Chameleos was here? Those things usually stay away from any territory already occupied by any other wyverns." said Stuart.

"I think it was driven here by another monster. Did you see how wounded it was before we killed it?" asked Steven pointing at the dead body.

"What the hell could cause that much damage?" asked Grant who was kneeling over the carcass.

"It could have been another hunter." suggested Alisdair.

"Nope." said Grant. "Looking at these wounds, it was definetely not another hunter. It looks like it was violently attacked. See these claw marks?" he said pointing at some deep wounds.

"Steven you're our resident monster nerd." Stuart said. "Can you ID these wounds?"

"I could give it a shot. But I'm going to need time. I suggest that we try to move this body back to camp where I can work on it in peace."

A cart pulled by an Aptonoth appeared some time later and the Chameleos was loaded onto it.

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"How long does it take to tell what made those claw marks?" asked Alisdair.

"I've just finshed narrowing it down to the Flying Wyvern group." said Steven looking up from his notes.

"It took you this long to figure that out?" said Grant.

"Well it could have been another Elder Dragon or something else so I had to be sure." said Steven. "But I think that I know which Wyvern did this."

"Well, what was it?" asked Stuart.

"Well, since there appears to be no poison in the wound we can rule out any Wyverns that use poison attacks. There also doesn't appear to be any elemental damage so that rules out any elemental wielding Wyverns. And there isn't any impalement wounds so it couldn't have been any Horned Wyverns. So that leaves us with a Tigrex."

"No way. Chameleos don't go anywhere near the Desert or the Mountains. Those are the territories where the Tigrex's usually stay." said Stuart.

"Well unless there's a Tigrex variant out there, I don't know what else it could have been." Steven said leaning back.

Just then a Felyne wearing a Guild uniform appeared out of one of the Felyne tunnels.

"Nyaa. Why haven't you returned to the village? The balloon pilot reported that you had completed your mission to slay the Rathalos. Nyaa."

"Well, what he failed to report was that we got attacked by a Chameleos." said Alisdair.

"In all technicality we attacked it." pointed out Grant.

"Whatever. We then were trying to find out what had done most of the damage on the Dragon."

"Nyaa. And what has your research discovered?" asked the Felyne.

"That it was either a Tigrex or some form of variant that hasn't been discovered yet." said Steven.

The Felyne looked scared.

"What's up?" asked Alisdair suspiciouslly.

"Nyaa! I must inform the Guild at once!" he said before dissappearing under ground.

"Anyone else get the feeling that we're being left in the dark here?" asked Stuart.

"Well the Felyne race does have legends of monsters that humanity is only just discovering. So it is possible that this Tigrex variant is in their legends." said Steven.

"Well we'll just have to get back to the village and find out now won't we?" said Grant picking up all his gear.

They all picked up all of their gear, loaded it onto their personal Aptonoth's and then rode back to the village.

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So that's it for Chapter 1. Please leave a review. Look forward to when the Guild reveals this mystery wyvern's identity. Unless you've already played Freedom Unite and know what it is.

Look out for the next chapter "Mystery of the Great Forest". Sorry this one was a bit short.

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	2. Mystery of the Great Forest

Following a suggestion from one of my reviews, here's a description of the armours that each character has for those of you who don't play the game. Steven's Tigrex S armour looks like several large claws attached to the armour and is orange with blue stripes. Stuart's Rathalos Soul U armour has some spikes, and is a deep blue colour. Alisdair's Rathian, Rathalos armour is Rathian S leggings, Rathalos S mail and tasset, Rathalos Soul U gauntlets and a Rathalos S helm. The S stuff looks like wings, whilst the helm looks like a Rathalos' head. The rest looks like normal armour. Grant's Diablos U armour is black and gold, looks very bulky, and the helm looks like a Viking helmet. It also has massive spikes on the shoulder pads.

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They also all wear different items. Steven wears a Mane Necklace around his neck. It's a lump of Kirin mane attached to a gold chain.

Grant carries around a Wyverian Artisan's Hammer on his side.

Alisdair wears a Rathalos Scale Necklace. Same as a Mane Necklace but with a Rathalos scale instead of Kirin mane.

Stuart wears a Ring of Darkness on his middle finger. It was awarded to him for leading the mission that slew one of the Fatalis' in the world. And keeping everyone else alive until med teams arrived.

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Their main weapons are a Blacksmith Hammer (Grant), Ultimate Gaelic Longsword (Steven), Eviscerator Blade Greatsword (Alisdair), and an Akantor Bow (Stuart).

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**Monster Hunter**

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**Chapter 2: Mystery of the Great Forest**

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Pokke Village. It's a quiet village nestled in the Furahiya Mountain Range which lies in the Minegarde region. It hardly ever sees any monster attacks and is a hot-spot for Machalite Ore mining. The mountains are also home to a variety of different species. Which makes it an ideal site for training newbie hunters as it allows them to manufacture decent weapons and trains them in hunting a variety of different monsters.

It is also home to our band of hunters. They all share a house in the north of the village which has over the years been extended.

The house now has a floor for each of them where they sleep and train, and then there is the ground floor where the kitchen and the meeting room is.

This room is currently being used.

"All right then. Let's go over what we know." said Stuart, crossing his arms over his chest.

They were all sitting around a table that was covered in pictures of monsters, and food.

"There is apparently a new type of wyvern that's been discovered, that is of a similar species as the Tigrex." said Steven, who was pouring over his notes.

A Felyne Chef was pouring out some orange liquid into each of the hunters mugs.

"Thanks Crystal." said Grant as he took a large swig of his mug.

"Nyaa. Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes. So I suggest you get your feet of the table Master Alisdair, and clear the table!" the Chef said pointing at Alisdair.

She wandered back into the kitchen.

"I'm thinking that Crystal's spent too much time with your mum Steven." Grant said. "Look what she's done to her!"

"Hey, Mum wanted some help around the house so I sent her over Crystal. A week later she sends her back, fussier than ever." Steven said.

"Yeah well back to the matter at hand.." said Alisdair who still hadn't taking his feet off of the table.

"Indeed. So far there has only been one other confirmed species of Pseudo Wyvern." Stuart declared.

They all stared at a man-sized tusk that hung over the door.

"The Akantor." said Grant.

"Well I can say with certainty that it wasn't an Akantor that did this to that Chameleos." Steven said. "The claw marks were way too small for an Akantor."

"Well it could have been a baby Akantor." Alisdair suggested.

Steven shook his head.

"No way. There aren't any baby Akantor, at least not in the Volcano regions. I think any baby Akantor spend their time underground, until their fully grown or something similar to their full size."

"Enough hypothesizing! You have an entire wall on your floor dedicated to your theories!" Alisdair said.

"If you two are quite finished." Stuart said.

The two brothers looked at each other.

"Now, we're probably going to hear an announcement from the Guild about this new monster so we might as well just sit back and wait."

A loud voice emanated from the kitchen.

"Nyaa! Have you four cleared that table yet?! If not then no dinner for any of you! Nyaa!"

"Right Crystal!" they all shouted back.

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When the table was finally cleared, five Felynes including Crystal, appeared from the kitchen carrying trays of food.

"Hold on. I don't remember you guys ever making this much for the four of us." said Grant as he stared at the large pile of food.

"Nyaa. That's because the Village Chief, Nekoht and the Guild Master are coming over to inform you about the recent Guild developments."

Crystal and the other Felynes returned to the kitchen where they then sent food to each of their Felyne Fighters.

"OK did anyone else get told about this besides Crystal?" asked Alisdair.

Everyone shook their heads.

They then heard a knock on the door.

"I've got it Crystal." Stuart said as he got up.

When Stuart opened the door, a Felyne wearing a fur robe regally stepped through.

"Hmm. So this is the house of the four who discovered the Nargakaruga. I'm not impressed."

An old lady in a big hat and fur robe stepped through after the Felyne.

"Be nice Nekoht. Oooh hello boys! So nice to see you again."

A middle aged lady in a purple robe came through next.

"Indeed. The Chief has missed you four dearly." she said smiling at the four of them.

"Good evening Guild Master." said Alisdair.

"I always get confused. Are we supposed to call you Guild Master or Guild Mistress?" asked Grant. "You know because of the whole being a woman thing."

"Well, you can call me Mistress if you want." the Guild Master said grinning at Grant. "But I think that should wait until tonight."

Grant went all red as his friends tried to contain their laughter.

"Enough of this foolishness." Nekoht barked (although how she did that none of them know.)

"Oh lighten up Nekoht." said the Chief as she thumped Nekoht on the back.

"I believe we were about to divulge upon these hunters an impossible task." said the Guild Master.

"What do you mean by impossible?" asked Alisdair. "We can take on any hunt you throw at us."

"Well it's not exactly a hunt. It's more of a reconnascience mission." said the Chief.

"Well Alisdair's already off of this mission." said Steven.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" asked Alisdair.

"Well you're not exactly the most stealthy person in the world." pointed out Stuart.

"That's true. Remember when we tried to throw that party for Chief here. All you had to do was hide in the dark behind the chair." said Grant.

"She has the hearing of a bat!" Alisdair explained.

"I'm sorry." said the Chief. "What did you say?"

Everyone burst out laughing.

"But seriously Alisdair, you cannot sneak around to save your life......and if that Nargakaruga is there........" Steven said thinking back to the grievous wounds on the Chameleos.

"By the way, what exactly is a Nargakaruga?" asked Grant.

Everyone looked towards Nekoht.

"A Nargakaruga is a black, sleeker variation of the Tigrex. It is very deadly. It is mainly a nocturnal predator, so it will react to sudden flashes of light."

"So we flash bomb it if it sees us." Alisdair said triumphantly.

"If you do that, you will severely, how you say.....piss it off. Its eyes will glow red, and lethal 3 foot spikes will shoot out of its tail in a wide burst. And it will move with the speed of one of your human ninjas." Nekoht said.

Alisdair looked deflated when she had finished.

"The monster also has very precise hearing.......and before you open your mouth young hunter," Nekoht said pointing at Alisdair, "the same effect I mentioned earlier will occur if you use a Sonic Bomb."

"Well this is just perfect." muttered Grant. "We'll be sitting ducks if we bump into that thing."

"Maybe not......" mused Steven.

Everyone stared at him.

"What are you thinking?" asked Stuart.

"Well, Flashing won't work as it will still be able to hear us. Sonic Bombing won't work because it will be able to see us. I think we need to use both bombs simultaneously, if we are discovered. It will require precision timing if its legendary speed is any indication." finished Steven.

"Are you nuts?!" asked Alisdair.

"Possibly. But I can't see any other options. Pitfall Traps won't work if we're discovered as the Nargakaruga will simply jump off of them before they can be set off, and Shock Traps would only work for a brief moment." concluded Steven.

Everyone sat back and considered the facts.

"You see, this is why Steven usually makes the plans. He thinks constantly. I just like to smash the monsters." declared Grant.

"Anyway boys, the mission is to scout out and explore the newly discovered region of the Great Forest." said the Chief.

"Indeed. You will need to gather supplies as you will be there for at least a week. So you will need your stealthiest set of armour and weapons, in order to remain undetected." said the Guild Master.

"Also stock up on smoke bombs, farcasters etcetera. You will leave on this mission, tomorrow. If you choose to accept it." finished Nekoht.

"Well it would be something different to put on the records." said Stuart.

"I have always wanted to be the first hunter in a new land." said Steven.

"It could be like a vacation." said Grant.

"Well, I can't stay here by myself otherwise Crystal will go crazy at me." said Alisdair.

"We're in." all four of them said at the same time.

"Excellent." said the Chief. "I'll see you boys when you get back. Now that business is out of the way, let's eat!"

Everyone laughed, and started eating.

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For the rest of the day, the team started to gather what supplies they could.

They didn't know what to expect in the Great Forest so they brought a whole variety of items.

But each hunter was adamant about bringing a form of large weapon in case of a run-in with the Pantherex as they were nicknaming it, so the Village Chief made for them a laquer that would hide the gleam of their blades, whilst keeping them sharp and workable.

Steven took two bags, one with supplies, the other with pads of paper and pencils.

"For taking notes and sketches in case we run into any new creatures." he explained.

"Of course. Typical." said Alisdair.

Everyone else took with them one bag with supplies in them.

On the day of their departure, Crystal ran up to them and stuffed some food sacks onto the Aptanoth that was going to carry the gear.

"Crystal," said Grant, "we already have enough food."

"Nyah, not at the rate you eat, you don't!" Crystal meowed at them.

"OK. Besides we might actually need the extra food." said Steven.

"What as bait to lure the Pantherex away from us?" asked Alisdair.

"Precisely." said Stuart. "We have no true understanding of this things abilities. So every possible escape route has to be planned." he finished, hefting his Akantor Bow onto his back.

"So at the first sign of this monster, we're gonna run?" asked Grant.

"Hey, none of us likes that part of the plan. But if it proves neccessary........." said Steven.

"Well, we'll never know until we go to this forest so lets get going!" Alisdair said impatiently.

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They all mounted up onto their own smaller Aptanoths, and started to head out of the village.

"Do we really need the Aptanoths? We could just walk there." asked Alisdair.

"So you want to walk over 100 miles before reaching the campsite?" asked Grant.

"Point taken." Alisdair said.

"Then lets ride on out. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can accomplish our mission." said Stuart.

So they rode their mounts out of the village, and set course for the Great Forest.

It was only half way down the mountain that Alisdair asked, "Are we going the right way?"

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Several days of travel later they arrived at the Great Forest. Steven had arrived a day before them as planned and had already picked a secure spot for base camp.

"Ok, there are only two paths in and out of the Forest and then there's the path you guys just took with the Aptonaths. The two paths are only large enough to allow us passage."

"What if they decide to fly in?" asked Alisdair.

Steven pointed above them at the tree cover.

"This area is heavily wooded above us so they can't land in this area. Also, see these trees? They're bark produces a slight pheremone that keeps away the insects so we can sleep in piece."

Stuart looked over one passage whilst Grant looked over the other.

"Hmm, nice spot as usual Steven." Grant said.

"Mhhm. So have you scouted out the next areas as well?" asked Stuart.

"Nope sadly I haven't had time for that yet, as I've been busy setting up my tent. I did go down to the ends of the paths though. I can tell you from a brief scan of the next areas that there seem to be the usual variety of monsters. I few of the Prey variety and one or two large bugs."

"OK." Alisdair said, "lets go hunting for that Pantherex."

Steven sighed, Stuart shook his head, Grant just nodded.

"Have you forgotten the mission already?" asked Stuart. "We're here to recon the area. Not to go hunting the Nargakaruga."

Grant and Alisdair moaned.

"If we encounter the Nargakaruga we might decide to fight it." Steven said trying to bring up the mood. "But in the mean time, we better set up watch. It's getting dark."

Alisdair looked at Steven.

"But isn't the Nargakaruga a nocturnal predator?" he asked.

"Yes, but we're new to the area and have no idea about the terrain. That's why we go and do recon during the day, and if the chance arises, fight it during the day." Steven explained.

"That way we may actually have a chance. If we were to fight it in the dark which is its element we would be creamed." said Stuart.

"Fine, I'll take first watch." Alisdair said.

"Ho no bro." Steven said pushing Alisdair to his own tent. "I know you. I'll take first watch. You will take third. Grant is second, Stuart takes fourth."

"OK, scout in morning, kill it if we have chance in daylight."

"Good, now we'll have to split when we go scouting in the morning. That way we can get a working map of this area nice and quick so remember to take accurate drawings. And dont try to fight any of the monsters unless absolutely neccessary." Stuart said before heading into his tent.

"Right plans sorted lets get some sleep." Grant said before going into his tent.

As they went to their tents to rest Steven took his place at watch.

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The following morning they all went down the paths and split up.

They were all wearing their Stealth Gear and were armed with several bombs for escape purposes.

Here's what happened to Steven.

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"Oh my god what a magnificent specimen." he said as he saw a monster that resembled a giant turkey.

Steven then skimmed through the book that Nekoht gave him before the trip.

"Ah hah, so this is a Hypnock."

He pulled out his sketch pad and started to draw it whilst it was drinking from the lake.

Then the Hypnock stopped drinking and looked up.............in Steven's direction.

"Uh-oh. I couldn't have been that loud...........was I?" he whispered to himself.

The Hypnock then started to look around in other directions then continued drinking.

"Phew." Steven whispered. Then he continued his drawing, whilst also making notes alongside his sketch on the behaviour exhibited.

After ten more minutes, there came from the Forest the sound of Velociprey.

Three Velociprey sprung from the Forest wall, heading for the Hypnock.

"Mustn't interfere." Steven whispered, but he reached for the Claymore on his back anyway, just in case the Velociprey spotted him.

The Hypnock turned around and then started to spit out blue balls of gas at the raptors.

When the gas hit the Velociprey, they stumbled for a bit then fell to the ground.

The Hypnock screeched at them and then flew off.

Steven put away his pads and half-drew his Claymore as he approached the Velociprey.

When he got closer to them, he could see that they were.......sleeping!

"Hunh. Well that's something that the Felyne records don't mention. Better get moving before they wake up."

Steven then looked into the Forest.

"I wonder how the others are doing?" he mused.

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"Ahh! This is usually Steven's job!" Alisdair shouted as he stumbled through the Forest.

He was being chased by a smaller monster than Velociprey.

Alisdair had stumbled upon a settlement of Shakalaka's, and they had spotted him.

Naturally he had tried to fight them straight off the bat, but he hadn't counted on there being 5 tribes being together, which meant there was 5 King Shakalaka's.

And they were pretty pissed off at him, because he had disturbed what looked like an ancient ceremony........lucky him.

Alisdair turned his head to look behind him and saw they were still chasing him and getting closer.

"Argh, how do I lose these things?!" he asked himself.

Then he slapped his head, remembering that he had some smoke bombs.

He quickly went through his side bag trying to find the right bomb, and then threw one.

A second later and a bright flash of light appeared behind him and in front of the Shakalakas.

The Shakalaka's were temporarily blinded but then they continued running after him.

"Oops, wrong bomb. Lets try this one." he said throwing a different bomb.

This time a loud screeching noise emitted from the bomb.

This didn't affect them as much as the flash bomb had.

"OK this has to be a smoke bomb." he said before throwing another bomb.

This time it did erupt into a cloud of smoke...........unfortunately it was a really foul-smelling smoke. He had used a dung bomb.

However this did stop them in their tracks......and set the Kings' crowns on, an even greater and uncontrolled, fire.

"Whatever works." Alisdair puffed as he kept running.

After several more twists and turns, he stopped for a breather.

"Wooh. I haven't had to do that much running since that fight with the Akantor."

He stood up and straightened himself and went over his supplies, until he found his notebook.

"Note to self," he wrote on the map part, "Shakalaka cave. Beware!"

He looked around when he started to hear the chatter of more Shakalakas.

"Oh come on." he groaned before deciding to hide himself in a bush.

Just as he did so, twenty Shakalakas ran through the area. They smelled really bad, and looked even madder than before.

_OK if I just stay really quiet maybe they'll keep on going or head back to their cave._ Alisdair thought to himself.

Ten minutes later they ran off back in the direction of their cave.

Alisdair waited until they were all gone then started making his way back to camp.

"OK, that has got to be the worst recon ever. Hope the guys are having better luck than me in this place."

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Grant wasn't doing much better.

He was investigating the tree at the Forest's center and had discovered it was hollow.

"Hmm, this could be the Pantherex's lair." he mused as he went inside.

The inside of the tree was littered with bones of other monsters.

"Well, it's definitely someone's lair." Grant said as he looked over all the different bones.

Then he heard a rustling of wings coming from up above him.

"Uh-oh." he said as he started looking all over for a hiding spot.

He finally spotted a grouping of rocks which looked like it could do the job.

He dived for cover just as the monster landed.

It looked like a Tigrex, but was skinnier, was covered in a black coat of fur and had a sleek, long black tail.

Around its eyes were a distinctive red pattern, and in its claws was the dead body of the Hypnock Steven had seen earlier.

It was the Nargakaruga, returned from a hunt.

Grant then heard a sound like kittens squeaking at the opposite end of the lair.

Miniature versions of the Nargakaruga popped out of the shadows bounding towards the larger one.

_Well, this makes things just a little more difficult. One its a mother, and two, how the hell am I getting out of here?! _Grant thought to himself.

The mother looked around the lair, and then prowled over to the back of the lair where the kittens had come from, whilst the kittens started tearing into the meal she had brought them.

_Ok, the entrance is over there_, he thought looking just passed the kittens. _Now mummy is looking in the opposite direction, but I bet that as soon as I reveal myself I'm gonna be next on the menu._

Grant sat down on the ground without making a noise as he considered his options.

_On the one hand I could sit here and wait for them to all either fall asleep or leave. But then my friends would wonder what happened and come looking and more than likely end up here._

_On the other I could try and make a break for it as soon as I get the chance, but run the risk of leading the Pantherex to our campsite, or getting eaten in the process._

Just as he finished thinking all of this, the rocks forming his cover were swatted aside by the Pantherex's paws.

It stared straight into Grant's eyes.

Grant raised his right hand and slowly waved, whilst going into his side pocket for a smoke bomb.

"Hello."

Then he bolted like a mad hare, after dropping the smoke bomb.

The Pantherex roared at him and chased him as far as the door, swiping apart his armour when she got the chance.

She didn't chase him any further after he left.

Once Grant got far enough away that he believed was safe, he stared at the state of his armour.

"Aww man! The bill for this is going to be huge!"

Then he remembered the others.

"I gotta tell the guys about this. And soon!"

He started running towards the campsite.

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Stuart in the mean time whilst all this was going on, had had the most peaceful recon ever.

He had encountered only one Velociprey, had only been stung by a couple of bugs, and had found some new species of fauna and wildlife that didn't try to kill him.

Of course he had seen the explosion of light, sound and then seen the fire from the Shakalaka's that were chasing Alisdair.

"Ho boy." he said holding his head in his hand. "Why did we bring him along again?"

He then went off back to camp.

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That night when they had all returned to camp they each took turns in discussing their findings.

"Ok so we know not to go to that cave." Steven said when Alisdair had finished his report.

"Yeah but back to Grant's little adventure........you just sat there and waved at it?!" Stuart asked Grant, trying not to laugh.

"Grant even for you that was a little stupid." Steven said.

"Hey, I'd like to see any of you guys in that situation." Grant exclaimed.

Steven just sat there and looked at him.

"Oh right. Sorry." Grant said remembering how many times Steven had been used as bait.

"The point is," Stuart started, "that we now have a problem on our hands. One, the Pantherex now knows we're here. Two, its a mother still raising its young. So we can't just kill it."

"True. So how do we defend ourselves if we have to fight it?" asked Alisdair.

"Simple," Steven said as he pulled out his Tigrex Armour from a pack on his Aptonath., "we use our escape plans. That means knowing which bombs do what." he finished looking at Alisdair.

"Why are you getting your gear on?" asked Alisdair trying to divert the bomb issue.

"Because my gear can give us a head's up in case the Pantherex decides to pay us a visit. I'm assuming I'm not the only one who brought his gear?"

The rest of them looked at each other and then went to their own Aptonath's and pulled out their gear.

"Right tonight we sleep in our gear, just in case mummy decides to pay us a visit." Steven said as he was putting on his armour.

"I thought you said that the tree cover would keep any flying monsters from landing?" asked Grant.

"Well, I figured if they can't see where they were landing they wouldn't want to risk it, but since we've got a pissed off mother after us............" Steven trailed off as he put on his helmet.

His eyes then briefly glowed as he used the Psychic Ability in the armour.

"We're fine guys for now." Steven said as his eyes stopped glowing. "Just stay out of the Forest tonight."

"Right then, same watch plan as last night?" asked Stuart.

Everyone nodded then went either to bed or to take their watch.

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_Sorry this chapter took so long guys I've been busy with university and my other fanfic. Hope you enjoyed it._

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Next time Chapter 3: To Kill Or Not To Kill?


	3. To Kill or not to Kill?

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"ACHOO!" A loud sneezing sound reverberated throughout camp.

Steven sat on his log next to the fire, wiping his nose and his eyes.

"Trust me to hide in a bush that was in the middle of pollinating." he grumbled.

Alisdair sat on his log, silently laughing at his brother's predicament.

"Of all the times for your hay fever to act up, you decide this to be the most opportune time." Stuart said mildly mocking him.

"Well, I'm no good to the mission for at least a day or two." Steven said before sneezing again.

"Well, just don't try to do any cooking either." Grant said. "Last time you cooked, we all came down with food poisoning for at least two days."

Steven looked up at Grant and glared at him.

"Not my fault. Need I remind you...achooo...ah, that you got me the wrong kind of mushrooms?" Steven reminded Burdok.

Grant started to scratch his head.

"Well, they looked like the description you gave me."

Steven pointed at Grant.

"Yeah, but I also told you to check the underside of them as well. The ones I wanted didn't have red spots under them. They were supposed to be pink spots."

"Well, it was dark when I found them." Grant said trying to explain his mistake.

"If we're done discussing cooking." Stuart said. "We need to discuss what we need to do about the Pantherex."

"Well, our mission was to simply explore this region and catalogue any new species that we encountered. Achoo!" Steven replied.

"Plus it still has young ones with it." Grant said.

"How many?" asked Alisdair.

"I saw at least 3 kittens. There may have been one or two more, I'm not sure. I was too busy being chased at that point to take a tally." Grant said.

"All right...so this is a bit of a mess then. We have an angry mother pantherex out there waiting for us to come back in and we can't kill it or harm it without possibly harming the future lives of those kittens...that sum it up?" asked Stuart.

"Just about...achoo!" Steven sneezed.

"How about we adopt the kittens?" Grant asked.

"Oh sure...lets just explain to Crystal and the entire village why we have brought with us three baby Pantherex's that when they grow up will probably try to eat us." Alisdair replied.

"OK, bad idea I get it." Grant said.

"What if we were really sneaky...and just avoid the pissed off monster?" asked Alisdair.

"That lowers the exploration team count down to two then." Stuart said. "I saw the results of you trying to be sneaky earlier on. Boom, boom, boom...that sound familiar?"

Grant and Steven covered their mouths to try and suppress their laughs.

"I was being chased by evil coconut wearing monsters. I felt a certain amount of, as you put it, boom, boom, boom, was needed." Alisdair said trying to defend his actions.

"Regardless, you're staying here. You can help by keeping the transmitter going...in case Steven can pin-point where exactly the Pantherex is, through his hay fever." said Stuart.

"Gotcha...achoo!" Steven sneezed.

"So my job now is to crank the transmitter into operation?" moaned Alisdair.

"Think about it this way. It will give you some more exercise for your arms, and give you time to think about the term 'discretion' and how it is supposed to be applied." Grant said with a straight face.

"Ha. Very funny." Alisdair grumbled as he made his way over to the pack which held the transmitter device.

It looked like a brown box with a built in cranking arm. On top of the box was a series of metal wiring, making an antenna.

Alisdair started to crank the device into life.

A little blue light quickly flashed on the sides of everyone's helmets.

"Testing, testing. Can you guys...achooo...hear me?" Steven asked.

"Yes oh snotty one." Alisdair replied.

"Remember, I still have this Longsword just itching to take a swing at you." Steven said, starting to pull out his weapon slowly.

"OK, so we know the plan then? Steven stays in camp and keeps his psychic armour's eyes open and keeps look out for the Pantherex. Alisdair cranks the transmitter so Steven can warn us if we're in the same area or next to the area with the Pantherex. Meanwhile Grant and I will continue onwards with our original mission. Understood?" asked Stuart.

Everyone nodded.

"Alright then. Grant you take the left path, I'll take the right. We'll come back here in six hours."

"Six hours? I've got to crank this thing for six solid hours?" Alisdair moaned.

"Just be glad its only six hours...besides think about it as upper body exercise...I'll let you take a five minute break every half hour ok?" Steven suggested.

"All right I'll take that deal." Alisdair replied, gratefully.

"Right then, now that's all sorted, lets go. Steven, get your helmet back on and start sensing out for the monsters" Stuart said as he left.

"See you guys later." Grant said, flicking his fingers in a mock salute as he went down his path.

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Two hours later, and Alisdair was sweating a bit.

"How long's it been?" Ali asked.

"It's been two hours...achoo! Now please I have to concentrate...this damn hayfever is making the Psychic abilities a little erratic to control." Steven said as he closed his eyes again, trying to pinpoint the monsters.

"Aargh. I am so tired of this. I want to get in on the action." Alisdair grumbled as he cranked the machine.

Steven tapped the side of his helmet.

"Grant...there's something large heading into the same area as you from the east. Over." he said into the speaker.

"Roger that, I see it...it's the Hypnock from the other day. Over." Grant replied.

"Copy that. Monitoring it in relation to the other monsters. Over." Steven said, before sneezing and losing concentration.

"Damn it, now I've gotta pinpoint the monsters all over again."

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A few hours earlier.

"Steven...Steven do you copy? Over?" Stuart asked, tapping his helmet.

All he could hear was silence.

"Damn it what's going on?" he muttered to himself.

Meanwhile at camp.

"Hey Alisdair, I can't hear the others...you still cranking that transmitter?" Steven asked, opening his eyes and losing the map in his head.

Alisdair wasn't there.

"Shit!" Steven said diving for the crank and cranking like mad.

"Guys do you read me?" Steven desperately asked whilst still cranking.

"Finally. I was getting worried. What's going on over there?" asked Stuart.

"Well better keep worrying. Alisdair's gone into the Forest."

"What? God damn it...all right, can you sense any monster anywhere near us?" he asked.

"Are you and Grant together?" Steven asked.

"Yeah why?" Grant replied.

"Cus, I'm picking up a monster heading towards you guys, and another heading for another hunter signature."

"Any detail on which monster it is?" Stuart asked.

"Heading for you guys? Not a clue...this hayfever...achoo! Uh, its seriously messing with the Psychics. I haven't been able to keep a clear track on which monster's which. All I can tell is that its pretty big, and its flying."

"Great that's specific...all right thanks for the heads up." Grant said.

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"No way am I letting those two have all the fun..." Alisdair muttered.

Alisdair was hiking through a patch of the Forest when he suddenly heard a sound. It was the sound of wings.

He looked up...and saw a giant bird monster diving for his head!

He quickly rolled out of the way, and pulled out his Great Sword.

"Damn it...this must be that Hypnock thing the guys were going on about..." Alisdair grumbled, keeping the monster in his sights, and the blade pointed at it.

The Hypnock circled around Alisdair, whilst he kept it in front of him. After the monster had made a complete circle, it stretched its head forward, and shireked at him, before quickly launching a series of sleep gas bombs.

Alisdair jumped backwards from the first one, rolled left, then rolled right, then dove forward for the next ones.

He caught a faint whiff of the gas as it flew over his head, and immediatly shook his head, trying to keep himself focused.

"Damn that stuff's strong... gotta keep that in mind.. I get hit by one of those and it's light's out Alisdair." he said to himself.

He tried to get behind the wyvern, in order to strike it from behind. That way he would have less chance of getting hit by the sleep gas.

But the Hypnock kept flying backwards and side to side, always keeping Alisdair in its sights.

"All right birdy...you wanna dance? Then lets dance." Alisdair said, as he ran towards the Hypnock, blade skimming across the ground.

The monster took in a breath and launched another barrage of gas bubbles at him.

Alisdair side stepped each of the bubbles, never losing any of his speed.

Then he reached the Hypnock and swung his blade upwards, aiming to slice the bird in half with one stroke.

But the monster flew backwards just as he swung, so all he managed to do was slice open its lower beak.

The Hypnock screamed in pain.

Alisdair quickly followed up with a swing from the left to the right. This time he hit its chest, slicing it across its chest.

The Hypnock decided it didn't want this much bother from a meal and started to fly off.

"Oh no you don't!" Alisdair roared, running towards the monster. He threw his sword into the ground beneath the wyvern, making an impromptu platform.

He used his sword like a springboard and grabbed hold of the Hypnock's left leg. Alisdair then pulled out his skinng knife, and plunged it into the monster's belly...or as close to it as he could.

"How's that for a vesectimoy!" he yelled out, as he jumped off of the beast, before it could crash onto the ground.

However when it did crash, it crashed on top of Alisdair.

"That's not even funny..." Alisdair groaned as he tried to pull himself out from under the dead monster.

To make matters worse, three Velociprey came out of the woods and spotted the dead Hypnock and Alisdair underneath it.

"Oh come on!" Alisdair yelled at the sky.

He then started to try and lift himself from underneath the carcass as the raptor monsters came closer.

They then heard a roar in the jungle...that was getting closer.

Grant and Stuart then burst through the tree-line with a Rathian right behind them.

The Velociprey then legged it as soon as they saw the Rathian.

Stuart used his sword to block open the jaw of the Rathian when Grant noticed Alisdair under the Hypnock.

"Now Alisdair, I'm pretty sure you're meant to skin the animal after you kill it in order to stay warm...not sleep under the whole carcass." joked Grant pulling Alisdair from under the dead body.

"Very funny." Alisdair said, brushing himself off as he ran over to where his sword was, and pulled it free from the ground.

They all then heard some static over their headsets.

"Guys what monster are you fighting?" asked Steven.

"It's a bloody Rathian...and I think it's pissed!" Stuart replied as he pulled his weapon from the wyverns jaws in time to dodge a fireball.

"Rathian...hunh...what were you fighting Alisdair?"

"The Hypnock you spotted yesterday." he replied, dodging the Rathian charging for him.

There was some more static.

The three of them continued their hit and run plan against the Rathian, until the wyvern was standing in one spot and all three charged at once and struck it from three angles, downing it.

They turned around as Steven arrived into the clearing. He was wearing his Tigrex Gunner armour. Same look but had a closed helmet rather than an open one.

"...Crap." was all he said when he saw the two dead wyverns.

"What's the problem?" Grant asked.

Steven's eyes went blue as he used his armour's Psychic ability.

"The problem is I'm not picking up any more large monsters." he said, his eyes going back to normal.

"Wait...not even that Nargakaruga thing?" Alisdair asked.

"Not even that."

All four of them looked at each other.

They all started running towards the Nargakaruga nest that Grant discovered the other day.

"Noticed your hayfever's gone down." Stuart said as they ran through the jungle.

"Yeah, just needed to sit down and breath in some steam for a while." Steven replied.

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They arrived at the nest ten minutes later.

All four of them crouched down in the bushes.

Steven used his binoculars to look into the cave.

"Anything?" Grant asked.

Steven didn't say anything for five minutes as he scanned the cave.

Then he sighed.

"Yeah...the cubs are still there, but there's no sign of the mother."

"Maybe she just went to hunt in a different region?" suggested Alisdair.

Steven shook his head.

"Grant you didn't by any chance accidently touch anything in there? Eggs, the cubs...anything?" he asked.

Grant racked his brain.

"Well there were those funny rocks I hid behind..."

They all looked at each other right there and then as they realised what those rocks were.

"Bugger. Those were eggs...and the mother found your scent on them..." Alisdair started.

"So she's abandoned the nest..." Stuart said.

"Cubs included." finished Steven.

Grant moaned at what had happened.

"So what do we do now?" asked Alisdair. "Put the cubs out of their misery or let nature take its course?"

They all sat in the bushes for twenty minutes considering what they were going to do.

Until Grant had an idea.

"We could adopt them." he suggested.

To that suggestion the other three looked at him like he had gone mad.

After five minutes of explaining why it would be a bad idea, reasons including the village getting eating, they all started to think of the alternatives.

"Well...if we raised them we could train them to help us in difficult missions. There is more than one Fatalis out there in the world." Steven pointed out.

"We would have to keep them away from the village in case anything went wrong...when they got bigger." Stuart suggested.

So they all agreed they were gonna adopt the cubs.

"Wait...they've already imprinted on their mother." Steven said before they went into the cave.

"What about the eggs?" asked Alisdair.

The other three looked at him in astonishment.

"What?" he asked looking very worried.

"You actually just came up with a good idea..." said Grant.

"Ok so we get some eggs...what about the cubs?" Stuart asked.

Steven peeked around the corner.

"Don't think we need to worry about the cubs." he said.

The other three looked around the corner.

They saw the cubs were all gone.

"Where'd they go?" asked Alisdair.

"I think they're all out hunting as a pack." suggested Steven. "This may be part of the life cycle of the Pantherex. Mother takes care of them for a while, leaves and they work as a pack till they get bigger and hunt solo."

"So...we still taking the eggs?" asked Grant.

"Yeah. There's only about three cubs running around out there. There were four more eggs in that cave right? They were probably supposed to hatch that night you were there, but since you touched them the mother stopped caring for them."

They all took in this knowledge.

"Ok, so we nab the eggs and hustle back to camp." Stuart said, giving the signal to move in.

Alisdair and Grant went in first, weapons drawn in case the three cubs were planning an ambush. Stuart and Steven brought up the rear, Steven with his Heavy Bowgun and Stuart with his Switch Axe.

"Ok, everyone pick up an egg...and lets move." Stuart said.

Everyone picked up an egg after sheathing their weapons, and started moving back to camp.

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Hope you guys enjoy this chapter...yes I know it's a bit random, but hey I do have a reason for it. Just wait and see.

You'll love it...once I figure out what the hell I'm doing :)

Leave a comment after the tone plz...beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

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	4. How 2 raise ur Panthrx or so we thought

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**Chapter 4: How to raise your Pantherex...or so we thought.**

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On the way to the village, all four of them were talking about how they were gonna explain the situation to the villagers.

"We could just not tell them?" suggested Alisdair.

"Yeah well, don't think that's much of an option. Mainly cus of the amount of extra food we'll have to bring into the building...along with the matter of our housekeeper." Steven pointed out.

"Hmm...hadn't thought about her...ok so what are we gonna tell them?" Alisdair said.

"We could tell the truth...it's all Grant's fault." Stuart said with a chuckle.

"Hey! Don't pile all the blame on me..." Grant said defending himself before realising the joke. "Well I suppose you could say that..."

"But seriously how are we gonna explain this?" asked Grant.

"I think we may be able to persuade them about the whole training idea...so long as they don't eat any of the villagers later on." Stuart said.

"Hmm I think that may be the point of contention. The whole later on in the future. We have no idea how fast these cubs will mature, or what their primary diet is, and a whole host of other problems. " Steven said. "Or even what normal behaviour is for Pantherex cubs."

All four of them sat in silence as they rode back into the village thinking about what the future may hold.

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"Welcome back young hunters. I trust you managed to retrieve some substantial data about the Great Forest?" asked the Village Chief.

She then looked behind the Aptonath's and saw four eggs on the wagons.

"What are those?" she asked.

"Umm...well..." all four of them said at the same time.

The Chief sighed as she rubbed the spot between her eyes.

"Boys, boys, boys...you can't just go picking up random monster eggs."

"They're not exactly random. It's all in the report." Steven said standing in front of the Chief as the others tried to sneak past.

"All right...I'll read the report as will the rest of the Village Council. Afterwards, we will pass our verdict on whether or not to keep the creatures."

"Thank's Chief. Will we also be able to plead our case before the council as well?" asked Steven. "You know...we have some ideas on how the cubs can prove themselves useful in the case that we can keep them."

"Mmm, we'll see...and you three are very bad at trying to sneak eggs past an old woman." the Chief said without turning her head towards them.

"How does she keep doing that?" asked Alisdair.

"Mainly because you're three heavily armoured hunters going clink clink clink, and you're carrying eggs as big as yourselves." the Chief explained with an amused look on her face.

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When the four of them got the eggs into the house, Crystal took one look at the monster eggs.

"Nyaa! Telly! We're gonna need the extra large frying pan!" she called back into the kitchen.

"No, no, no, no. Crystal these eggs aren't for eating, or medicinal purposes before you try anything." Steven said quickly.

Crystal stood there and patted her left paw.

"What have you four gotten yourselves into this time nyaaa?"

The four of them exchanged looks between one another then Steven, Grant and Alisdair walked backwards slightly, leaving Stuart to fend for himself with Crystal.

"Thanks guys." he said sarcastically.

Crystal pounced onto Stuarts face.

"Start talking or you don't have a face nyaa."

"Well it went like this..." Stuart started.

**Ten minutes later.**

"And that's why we have these eggs with us, and we're now waiting on the council's decision." Stuart finished, Crystal's claws having been getting more and more extended throughout the story-telling.

"Nyaaa..." Crystal growled as she retracted her claws and jumped off Stuart's face. "If those beasts of yours comes after the staff..." she said, quickly flicking out an index claw and retracting it slowly.

All four of them nodded.

When Crystal had stalked off to the Felyne quarters muttering to herself about not getting paid enough to put up with these madmen, the four hunters looked at each other, then carried each egg to their own rooms.

"Next time something like this happens...we're just going to leave the eggs." Alisdair said as he dropped his egg off.

"You're assuming there's going to be a next time." Grant said after he dropped off his egg.

Steven just lugged his egg up to his room, and locked the door.

"Guess he's going to go over the notes from our "observations" of the Pantherex and what legends there are on them." said Stuart.

Grant clapped his hands once.

"Sounds like a plan. Well I'm gonna do some hammer exercises. See you guys in a few hours." he said locking his door.

"I'm heading to the kitchen. Wanna come along?" Alisdair asked Stuart.

"Nah, think I'll help Steven sift through those legends. Can you ask Telly to send us up a little something in say, half an hour?" Stuart asked Alisdair before knocking on Steven's door.

"Sure." Alisdair said, heading down the stairs.

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Four hours later and there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" Alisdair yelled up.

When Alisdair opened the door, he found the Chief, Nekoht, the Guild Master, and the Village Elder (he's one of those stumpy guys with the really pointy ears).

"Oh hello there...care to come in?" Alisdair said, a little surprised to find them at the front door.

"Thank you deary." the Chief said as she shuffled inside.

"Crystal!" Alisdair yelled.

"Nyaaa what is it now, you bumbling baboon." Crystal asked as she came into the hall. Then she saw the Council members.

"NNNNYAAAAAA! You idiot! You could have told me it was the Council at the door! Nyaaaa... and I've just been found bad-mouthing my hunter host..." she said pawing at her head.

"It's perfectly alright." the Village Elder said. "My staff tends to bad mouth me as well...and I'm sure everyones staff around the world does as well. Its quite alright."

Nekoht just harumphed.

"I have never had any problems with any of my staff."

"That's because she's never been within earshot to hear them say anything about her." the Guild Master whispered to Alisdair as she walked in.

Alisdair suppressed a laugh.

"I'll go get the others." Alisdair said as he went upstairs.

A few minutes and all four hunters were at the table with the Council.

"We have come to hear of your plans for the creatures should they hatch." Nekoht said after taking a sip of her tea.

Everyone looked at Stuart and Steven.

"Well you two were the ones going over the legends and the little data we were able to grab." Grant said, with a wave of his hand.

"Well, when the eggs hatch we would try to raise them as sort of like a mount or ally in battle..." said Steven, before Nekoht spluttered.

"Mounts? What do you think these are? These are vicious predators!" she exclaimed.

"I've actually been studying the eggs and...well..." Steven said looking a little squirmy.

"What?" asked the Chief, eyeballing Steven.

"Stuart, you tell them." Steven said putting his head into his hands.

Stuart shot Steven a glare that could kill, sighed and stood up.

"We also brought with us egg fragments from the Pantherex eggs that had hatched in the cave. Upon a comparison between the eggs, we discovered a difference in size and colouration...a slight one but a difference all the same."

"They're not Pantherex eggs are they?" Grant asked with a sick feeling in his stomach.

"No. They are not. They are in fact...Rathian eggs." said Stuart.

"What?" everyone else exclaimed. Crystal decided to go into the kitchen to get the whetstones she kept there.

"Freshly laid Rathian eggs to be precise. Remember that Rathian we encountered that last day we were there?" Stuart asked.

Grant and Alisdair nodded.

"Well, the main reason she was pissed to see us was that she had just finished laying her eggs and we were getting close to them."

"Hold on...the pantherex cubs were in the same cave... so why didn't they I don't know...eat the eggs?" asked Alisdair.

"We have a theory. That cave tree, could be a communal birthing site. The wyverns have egg sites all over the world, they're bound to end up having some eggs in the same spot as others." Steven said. "So there could be a sort of unspoken pact that no-one touches the eggs in the communal sites."

"So what we have in our rooms, aren't Pantherex eggs...their Rath eggs..." said Grant.

Then he laughed.

"At least we don't need to worry then. We know the lifestyles of the Rath species so we should know how to raise the baby wyverns."

"No need to worry you say? Now we know exactly what to worry about! Raths are very dangerous!" said Nekoht.

"But now we know what we're dealing with as you nicely pointed out Nekoht." said the Chief. "So, with this new information in mind, how does this affect your plans boys?"

The four of them looked at each other.

"Well, now we have access to a lot more information since we know its Rath eggs." said Steven. "So we know how big their going to get, how much their going to eat on a daily basis. And a whole host of other information."

"So, basically, the plan stands on training the Raths as battle partners." said Alisdair.

"Set the scene. The Schrade Fortress is under attack by a Black Fatalis. Normally we wouldn't be able to touch it in the sky, not even with long range Bowguns. But now we can reach it in the sky with our Rath battle partners." suggested Stuart. "If we can get this programme off the ground, then the Rath species could become instead of something to hunt, could become a valuable ally against other monsters."

The Guild Master nodded her head.

"I can see that being helpful. It would also allow for a whole new range of exploration and monster hunting. There are some monsters that are permanently in the skies..." she said.

"I vote for the programme. If you four can make this work, without any consequences for the village, then we will see what we can do to introduce this plan to the rest of the hunters."

"Well I vote against it." said Nekoht. "If the Raths that hatch are both different genders, say one or two are female, and the other two or three are male, the destruction that could follow their mating season is unbeareble to comntemplate. Nor can a village support a large wyverns feeding needs, let alone four of them."

The Elder stood up.

"Well I vote for it. This could bring about new legends, and inspire more people to enter the hunt and defend the villages and cities of Minegarde and the rest of the world. Also I'm intrigued to see how this goes. An experiment must be tested."

Everyone looked at the Chief.

"Its all up to you Chief. Your vote could send this decision into deadlock or allow the programme to continue. This is your village that's concerened here."

The Chief sat there and thought about the possibilites of this programme. The bad ones and the good ones.

"I vote...for the programme. So long as the boys manage to keep the Raths under control and don't exert too much pressure on the Village's needs they can keep them. However, if too much property is destroyed and their feeding requirements becomes too much for the village to handle then they will be evicted."

Steven wiped away a bead of sweat from his head.

Grant and Alisdair high fived each other.

Stuart nodded at the Chief.

Nekoht fumed at the decision.

The Guild Master giggled at the Felyne's discomfort.

The Elder just pulled out a wax tablet and started writing down what had happened.

"I shall dub this tale, "The Fate of Legends!" Make this one to be proud of boys." he said. "And bring honour to this village."

All four of the hunters stood up and bowed to the Council.

"We will do our best." said Stuart.

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The next day Grant was leaving the village on his Aptonath.

"You know what you have to do Grant?" asked Stuart.

"Yup. Go to the Forest and Hills region and find a suitable location to train our Raths in. Don't worry I'll be back."

With that he waved and set off.

Meanwhile, Alisdair was leaving on his Aptonath from the other exit from teh village.

"You sure you know what you're doing brother?" asked Steven.

"For the hundreth time yes. i'm to go to the various Rath regions and gather what information i can on feeding patterns. I'll head to the volcanic region first to see how they hunt there."

"Just be careful." Steven said.

"I will be." Alisdair said.

Then he left as well.

"Guess that just leaves me and Stuart to get the backgarden ready for the new arrivals. According to my notes, the eggs should hatch in one months time. Hopefully by then all the preparations will be done and ready." said Steven heading back to the house.

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	5. Hunt for a training ground

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**Chapter 5: Hunt for a Training ground**

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After a week of travelling Grant found a location that showed promise for a base for training the Raths when they hatched.

The campsite was inside an old cave, hidden in the hills surrounded by forest.

"Okay, fresh water supply from a lake in the back, and this region hasn't had any Aquatic Wyvern reports so no surprises from that angle. Nice open top so we can fly in and out of the cave on the Raths. Now just to get up there to see what kind of view it is from up there, otherwise we may get other visitors."

Then he scrathced his head.

"Also need to see what the hunting grounds are like out here. From what I remember about Forest Rath hunting, there needs to be nice supply of Mosswine and Aptonaths."

At the mention of that the Aptonath next to him suddenly head-butted him.

"All right all right, easy girl. We'll train them not to eat you, just the wild ones. Assuming no-one's using this area as a grazing land."

Grant walked out of the cave via the only ground entrance, armed with his hammer and a pair of binoculars.

When he walked out he put his binoculars to his eyes and looked around. He saw a river nearby, and a herd of Aptonath on both sides of the river drinking from it.

"Okay, so this region seems spacious enough...plenty of food around that I can see."

He looked around in the sky, in case there was already other wyverns using this as their feeding ground.

At the minute he couldn't see any.

"I'll probably have to keep an eye on that whilst I'm here." he said to himself.

Then he saw some movement in the trees across the river.

"What the...?" he asked zooming in.

Suddenly out of the trees came a Velocidrome and four Veloiciprey. They swooped in and made off with an Aptanoth. The rest of the herd scattered...some of them headed in his direction up the hill!

"Oh bugger." Grant said as he dashed back into the cave.

Grant turned around to see the Aptanoths still coming towards the entrance of his cave camp-site.

"They must come in here to get away from the Velociprey...that's going to put a damper on things." he muttered as he stood at the entrance, hammer at the ready.

The Aptonaths saw him at the entrance and suddenly made a u-turn back down the hill and joined the rest of the scattering herd.

"Well that answers that question. Other hunters have obviously been here." said Grant as he almost sheathed his weapon before he saw something else heading his way.

It was another hunter. And they were being chased by the Velocidrome.

"Hunh. A heroes work is never done." Gran sighed as he ran to help the hunter.

The hunter stumbled on a rock and fell over.

The Velocidrome leapt for the kill, but Grant threw his hammer and knocked the Velocidrome back by the impact.

"Move it kid!" Grant yelled running over to pick up his weapon.

The hunter nodded and ran towards Grant.

"What are you doing picking on a Velocidrome in your gear?" Grant asked as he went over the new person.

She, for Grant could tell from here that the hunter was a girl, was kitted out in nothing more than an Iron sword and shield and the clothes on her back.

She had short red hair, probably dyed guessing by the vibrancy of the colour, and blue eyes. She was about 5 feet tall. She looked about 16.

"I...I don't know what...I was just trying to catch it. You know so I could get some better armour."

Grant sighed.

"Yeah I get it. So where's your trap?" he asked.

The girl tapped her side bag.

"Shock or pit?" Grant asked.

"Pit of course." she replied.

Grant smiled.

"So you want Velociprey bits do you. How about I help you kill this thing, then we can go get the rest of its pack? You can have all the skinning dibs."

She nodded.

Grant then charged at the Velocidrome that had been circling them and smacked it right across the face, then did a reverse swing into its ribcage.

"Do it!" Grant said.

The girl nodded and lunged with her sword, slashing into the Velocidrome's side, then plunging her sword into it between the ribs.

The raptor gave off a shriek then collapsed as it died.

"Like I said, you can have skinning dibs." said Grant. "I'd advise you go for the scales, but take them off carefully. If you're sure of yourself, you can even take off the hide completely."

The girl nodded as she set to work, Grant keeping watch for any more of the pack.

"By the way, I never got your name. Mine's Grant." he said after she had finished skinning the Velocidrome.

"Mine's Hali." she said shaking his hand. "This is kind of my first hunt."

"I could tell. So what was your mission?" Grant asked.

"I was to take down three of this Velocidrome's pack. I managed to pull off one of them, killed it then skinned it...but then this guy showed up before I could get a second. So I ran."

She then started to cry.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Grant said suddenly confused about what to do. He's never had a girl suddenly cry on him before. "What's wrong?"

"I shouldn't be running from a monster like this...if I keep doing that, how am I ever going to be a successful hunter?"

Grant burst out laughing at that.

The girl stopped crying after hearing him laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh it's just, I've had to run so many times against a monster. Hell, just last week I was running from a Rathian that was chasing me for its lunch."

"You mean that?" she asked.

"I'm serious. Sometimes in order to hunt a creature, you have to run from it. Sometimes it's to regroup to a better location, or to lure it into a trap, or just to get the hell away from it. Running is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I guess so..."

Grant then wondered something.

"Hold up...if you were just here to cull off some of the pack, then what are you doing with a Trap, and why when I first asked you did you say you were here to Trap a Velocidrome?"

The girl suddenly stared at her feet, and her face went as red as her hair.

Grant groaned.

"Oh come on...you're not a registered hunter? Ok, who'd you take the gear from?"

"I didn't steal it if that's what you mean!" Hali said suddenly on the defensive. "It was some spares that my brother leant me. He said If I could trap a Velocidrome or kill it and skin it, then I could join him on his hunts."

"Ah now I get it. Tell me, did he by any chance explain to you the dangers involved in you not wearing armour? Or the dangers of a Velocidrome?" Grant asked, his hands resting on the pommel of his hammer.

"Well, he said he didn't have any armour that would fit me..." she said.

"So he sent you out here, with nothing more than a beginner's set of tools, and one trap, and told you to come out here and bag a Velocidrome?" Grant asked, not quite believing what he was hearing.

Hali resumed staring at her feet.

"Argh, why me?" Grant asked no-one in particular.

"All right." said Grant. "Come with me."

He then started to go up the hill to his camp.

"Where are we going?" Hali asked.

"Back to my camp. I'm gonna send up a flare and hopefully an observation ballon will be up there to see it. They'll come down, pick you up and send you home." said Grant.

"What? No I'm not going home just yet!" said Hali refusing to move.

"Listen kid, you go home alive or dead. That's how this job works. You almost ended up as the last option. If I hadn't been here, then you definitely would be dead." Grant said turning around to face her.

"Then train me. I could be like...your student or something."

Grant just stared at her.

"You're serious?" he asked after a while.

She nodded.

Grant slapped his hand against his face, and slid it down his face.

"I don't have time for this..." he grumbled to himself. "Listen kid what village are you from?" he asked

"Kokoto Village."

"Kokoto...ok that's not too far from here.." Grant said checking his map. "Ok how about this, since you're so gun-ho on becoming a hunter. You can stay with me for the week that I'm going to be here."

"Yippee!" she said jumping up and down.

"But, " Grant said, and she stopped jumping. "you have to do everything I say, when I say it. Got it? I say run you run, I say jump, you jump. You attack a monster, when I tell you to. Meanwhile I will try to teach you what I know."

"Got it." she replied.

"Now then, first things, first. We're going to go back to your village, talk to the armourer and get you some gear. They usually have some basic armour in stock."

"Ok." she said with a little pout.

"Besides, I think you'll want to show your brother your first kill don't you? And you'll have a hunter to corrobarate your story, so he doesn't think you just skinned that off a dead Velocidrome."

With that thought she brightened up.

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A few hours travelling on Grant's Aptonath later, they arrived in Kokoto Village.

It's a quiet little village surrounded by cherry blossom trees.

Then a man dressed in Bone Armour that made him look like a walking skeleton walked up to them.

"Hali, get down from there this instant! And who is this? I'm the Kokoto Village Hunter. I wasn't told we were going to get another hunter."

"Well you've already got a new one. I take it you're Hali's brother?"

"I am. The names Sten. Now what has my sister done? And what do you mean by another hunter?"

"You're looking at here Sten. Hali told me all about your little deal. The one about the Velocidrome." said Grant.

Hali pulled out the Velocidrome hide from her pack on the Aptonath.

"One Velocidrome hide brother."

Sten took hold of the hide and inspected it.

"Before you try anything, I saw her kill it. She dealt the killing blow right through the monsters ribs and straight into the heart."

"You say she dealt the killing blow? What about the rest? Or did she simply leap upon your hunt mister..." Sten said.

"Grant. And no, in truth I stummbled upon her hunt. I gave her a little help, keeping its attention. What kind of idea was it sending her out to hunt a Velocidrome, without any armour by the way?"

"Well, I...uh..." Sten said then sighed. "Look. She's constantly bugging me about training her to be a hunter, and I just don't have the time to do so...so i just said the first thing that popped into my head."

"Okay. I'll accept that excuse as a lapse in judgement. Luckily for you, I've agreed to teach her a thing or two whilst I'm in the Forest and Hills region not too far from here."

"Oh no, I don't want my little sister imposing on you whilst you're on a mission." Sten said going over to Hali.

"But I'm not on a Guild mission, so it's not an inconvienance. In fact, I could use her help." Grant said, resting his hand on the pommel of his hammer.

Sten sighed.

"If you insist." he said handing Hali back the hide.

"But first, we're going to have to get her some armour." Grant said making for the armoury.

When Grant got to the armoury store, he perused the stock, with the occasional glance at Hali.

Grant then went into his Aptonath's pack and pulled out a bunch of materials.

He then walked back to Hali.

"Give them the hide." he said. "They'll be able to give your sword there an upgrade if you do."

Hali nodded and went over to the armourers.

A few hours later and the armourer walked over to Hali.

"Here you go Miss Hali. You're first set of armour."

He handed to her a whole set of Velociprey Mail armour.

"But I didn't have this many materials...nor enough money to make these." she said looking at the armour.

"But I did." said Grant. "Consider them a gift. Which I will expect a repayment of in your training. You will work for that armour. Now this was yours alone." he said pointing at the felyne armourer coming up to them.

"Nyaa. You're new blade Miss Hali."

The felyne handed to her a sword and shield combo known as a Velocidrome BIte. The sword resembled a Velocidromes large foot claw, whilst the shield was a Velocidrome's hand.

"Make good use of these in honour of Kokoto Village. Nyaaa." the felyne said.

Hali started to tear up.

"Oh yeah, and she's kinda emotional as well." said Sten, completely ruining the moment.

Hali took the armour and weapon, went into her house and got into them.

A few minutes later she came out fully garbed in her new armour.

"Hali, welcome to the world of Monster Hunting." said Grant.

At this point the whole village had come out to see what was going on.

They all gave a round of applause as they met their newest hunter.

Several went up to her to congratulate her.

"Thanks everyone. Thank you all...I'll do my best to defend this village and uphold the good name of Kokoto." she said.

"Now though, I go with Hunter Grant to do some training that he's agreed to do with me. Sten, keep the village in one piece till I get back kay?" she asked her brother with a sweet grin on her face.

He just chuckled.

Grant and Haliu left the village and left for Grants camp-site.

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"Um, should I call you master or something, during my training? You know, the way a student is supposed to sometimes." Hali asked whilst they were travelling back to camp.

"You can if you want. I don't mind." Grant replied.

"Very well then." said Hali.

After five minutes of silence, Hali asked Grant something.

"Master, if you aren't here on a Guild mission, what are you doing here?"

"Ah that my student is not something you need to know right now. I don't want to fill your head with any ideas." said Grant. "All I can say is this. If this plan works, it could mean a change in the way we hunt."

"Ok Master." Hali said.

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When they were back at camp, it was almost nightfall.

"Okay this should be ok for some introductory training." said Grant.

"Yes Master. I am ready to learn." Hali said as she sat by the fire.

"First of all, I need to know what you can already do. Do you know how to cook out here in the field?"

"Yes. My brother taught me one time."

"Do you know how to gather materials to create say, a Potion for example?"

"Yes. I learned that from my mother on one of our trips out here, during the more peaceful season."

"Do you know how to use a Paintball to mark a monster in the case that it gets away from you and you need to track it?"

"Yes."

Grant sat there for a moment.

"Ok then. Let's move out then." he said picking up his hammer.

"Right now? But it's night-time." Hali said.

"Exactly. Not every mission you get assigned will be during the day. Besides, I need to do a little bit of scouting. You might as well come along."

"Yes Master." said Hali.

So they both left the cave and went into the nearby woods.

They ran for an hour, taking note of local wildlife locations, such as Mosswine, Thunderbugs, Kelbi and other harmless creatures.

All the while Grant quizzed her on what she knew about each creature, and correcting her on what she got wrong.

Then Grant heard a noise and motioned for Hali to stay low.

They shuffled through some bushes.

"Make sure not to step on any twigs on the ground." he whispered so quietly she could barely hear him. "We don't want to give away our position."

Hali just nodded and payed close attention to the ground.

Grant parted a selection of bushes so he could get a clear view of the area ahead.

It was a clearing surrounded by a gully, and in the middle of the clearing, eating an Aptonath was a monster that resembled a Kut-Ku.

"Crap. A Garuga." said Grant.

_I can't get this kid stuck in a fight against a Garuga...she wouldn't last a minute against that monster._ he thought to himself.

"Master?" Hali whispered. "What is it?" she asked. She hadn't heard Grant ID it.

"It's a Garuga. A variant of the Kut-Ku. We have to move out of here very quietly."

Yes Master." Hali replied backing up, and accidently stepping on a twig.

The Garuga quickly raised its head and looked in their direction. Then it prepared to fire a fireball.

"Stay still." Grant whispered. "It's just seeing if something is really here. Stay low and still, and don't make a sound."

Hali nodded, although she really wanted to run away from the incoming fireball.

The fireball landed closeby to the bushes they were hiding in.

Grant and Hali stayed still for what seemed like an eternity whilst the Garuga kept staring in their direction.

It then resumed its meal, satisified that nothing was there.

"Phew." Grant said very quietly. "Okay, lets get out of here, quietly."

Hali nodded, turned around and payed very close attention to where she was putting her feet this time.

Once they were clear of the gulley, they ran to the next area.

"Ok that was close." said Grant. "Well done back there. Most people on seeing a Garuga first time don't manage to stay still during that test blast."

"Test blast?" Hali asked.

"Yep. Garuga are really clever bastards. So when they hear a noise, the fire a fireball close by to the sound, in an attempt to flush out whatever caused the noise. Luckily for us it only fired one. Usual routine is for them to fire two or three."

"So why didn't this one?" Hali asked.

"Probably because it was busy eating. Well better note down that this region has a Garuga wandering around. Then in the morning we can send it up to the Guild Balloon and they can inform the Guild about it."

"Can't we hunt it since we're here?" Hali asked, eager now since she had gotten over the fear of the situation they were in a few moments ago.

Grant shook his head.

"Maybe if I was here by myself. But I've got you to worry about, and you are not ready for a Garuga yet." he said. "Come on. Let's head back to camp to get some sleep. We can continue your training in the morning."

Hali sighed. "Yes Master."

So the two of them headed back to camp for the night.

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And so the rest of the week went by, with Grant training Hali, whilst he scouted out the region.

He gave her exercises like doing 50 press-ups in full armour, lifting weights in full armour for an hour and a half, running exercises.

Then he gave her combat exercises, honing her skills on the local Aptonath herd. Which also provided each nights dinner depending on how well she did.

The first night after the Garuga they went hungry.

Grant left it up to her to kill an Aptonath. He just watched and occasionally corrected her posture for each of her swings.

Then during the night whilst they had dinner, he gave her some of his monster volumes to read, so she could become familiar with the monsters that she would most likely encounter, and how she would have to fight them.

But ever since that first night she always went through the Garuga information first and last.

After the week was up, Grant dropped her off in Kokoto Village and then went on the road back to Pokke Village.

Maybe I'll bump into her again. Grant thought as he rode along. If she doesn't end up getting herself killed first. She's kinda cute.

And with that thought he rode back to Pokke Village to report on the location he'd picked out.

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Will we be seeing more of Hali? Who knows.

Hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter, and plz tell me wat u guys think about the whole Rath Riding plotline and be honest.

I think I'm on drugs or something half the time after I've read what I've written XD

Well hope you guys keep on reading my fanfic.

Please leave a review after the tone.

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

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	6. Volcano hunting patterns

Due to name changes in the game, the Eviscerator great sword is no longer the Eviscerator great sword, its now the Lacerator. But the characters in this fanfiction will continue to call it by the first name, in case any of you try to look up the weapons each person uses.

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**Chapter 6: Volcano hunting pattern.**

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It took Alisdair a few days to get to the closest Volcanic region to Pokke village.

He first of all had to travel overland by Aptonath, then change over to a boat to a nearby Volcanic island.

"Okay, this should make for a good camp site. There's a tunnel going into the volcano, and there's a narrow pass that should allow for some defense...no air cover though. Gotta be careful there." said Alisdair going over the area he had landed on.

After an hour, he had his tent set up and camoflauged from aerial view, along with the boat.

"Now according to the closest thing you could call locals, there should be a Rathalos or two flying around here..." Alisdair said looking up at the Volcanoes top.

He could see some monsters flying up at its summit, but he couldn't identify them from where he was.

"Well, my job's to find out how Rathalos handle themselves in a Volcanic Region. Better get started." he said hefting his Great Sword over his shoulder.

Alisdair headed off in the direction of the tunnel, drinking a Cold Drink as he entered, in preparation of the heat he would face.

Meanwhile, something was watching him as he went.

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"Hmm." said Alisdair looking around the cavern he was now in.

There was lava streaming into pools in various locations around the cavern. But there wasn't a single sign of life.

"Where is everything? There's not even a Bullfango running around." he said walking to the center of the cavern and sat on some rocks.

A few seconds later the place started shaking.

"Whoa! Is this place erupting?" Alisdair said, jumping off the rocks, before seeing that nothing was shaking. He turned around and saw that the rocks were shaking.

"Nuts." he said as the rocks flew up. They weren't rocks, but a Basarios that had been submerged. And it looked mad at him.

Alisdair readied his Great Sword, then he heard a roar from behind him.

He looked behind him and saw a Rathalos soaring in from one of the tunnels into the cavern. It flew over him and straight for the Basarios, knocking it over with the wind from its fly-over.

"Never look a gift-Aptonath in the mouth." Alisdair muttered, as he ran over to some rocks that were definitely rocks and then pulled out the notebook Steven had given him.

The Rathalos was about the same size as the Basarios. The Bssarios quickly shot a beam of fire from its mouth.

"Whoa, that must be almost ready to turn into a Gravios." said Alisdair as the Rathalos flew over the blast and fired a steady stream of fireballs at the top of the wyvern.

The Basarios buckled under the strain of the continuous assault and fell onto its belly.

The Rathalos quickly swooped down and flipped the stone monster onto its back using its head as a shovel.

The Basarios struggled as it tried to right itself, even more so as the Rathalos started to claw open its underbelly.

When the underbelly was exposed, the Rathalos quickly tore into it with its fangs, tearing out the wyverns internal organs.

The Basarios gave off a quick shudder as it died.

The Rathalos content that the Basarios was dead, began to feast on its new meal.

Alisdair quietly closed the notebook and quietly left the cavern, heading back to camp.

The wyvern continued with its meal, only looking up once as Alisdair knocked over some rubble.

It stared right at him, and he at it.

The Rathalos roared at him, and then continued with its meal, looking up now and again at Alisdair, who proceeded to leave very quickly.

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"Okay, so Rathalos don't go after anything if they're in the middle of a meal...good to know." Alisdair said looking over his shoulder at the cavern entrance.

Then he heard a twig snap in front of him.

As he turned his head around to see what it was, he pulled out his Eviscerator Blade so it was positioned in front of him, ready to strike at whatever monster appeared next.

Alisdair pressed the button on the hilt that deployed the extra blades.

"Eeeek!" came a noise from the other end of Alisdair's sword as the blades were deployed.

"What the?" asked Alisdair.

He peered round his blade and saw a kid. He looked about twelve.

Around his mouth looked like what appeared to be a brown sauce.

"What the heck? What's a kid your age doing here?"

"Me and my friends come to this beach all the time to play Hunter...what are you doing here?" the kid asked.

Alisdair sighed and sheathed his blade.

"I'm here on actual hunter business...so where's the rest of your group?" he asked looking around.

"They're off in the bushes there...I'm the hunter!" the kid said proudly brandishing his stick.

"Okay...just be sure to tell them that they better not get in my way. Oh and don't go into the cave over there, there's a Rathalos having luch at the minute." Alisdair said as he moved into his tent.

"Where's my dinner...I left it sitting on the stove right..here." Alisdair said inside the tent.

He then stuck out his head.

"Have you been in my tent?" he yelled.

The kid legged it.

"Get back here you little runt!" Alisdair yelled, giving chase.

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An hour later and Alisdair was wandering around a valley next to the Volcano.

"When I find that kid..." he growled. "Nobody touches my BBQ beef."

He then heard a rustling from some bushes...on both sides of him.

"Heh...nice try kid. But if you think that some little kids are gonna take me down, you're sadly mistaken."

He quickly brought out a Flash Grenade and fired it on the ground between the bushes.

Two kids stumbled out of each bush for a grand total of four. One of which was the boy from earlier. The others were all girls.

"Right then...care to tell me what is really going on here?" Alisdair asked, bringing his sword to bear.

His finger was twitching for dramatic effect on the blade deployment button.

The kids all looked at each other, then the one who had nicked Alisdairs dinner moved forward.

"We were sent here by our parents to learn how to survive. This island doesn't see much monster activity so every year, four kids are sent here as part of our heritage and learning to come out here and survive for a week."

"So its a tradition of sorts?" Alisdair asked, still twitching his finger on the button.

"Yeah. Look when I saw you go into the cave and smelled your dinner...we're been here for three days already...and none of us have caught anything yet...so..."

"So you decided to help yourselves to my dinner..." Alisdair said, slowly sheathing his blade.

The kids all bowed their heads in shame.

"Sorry...if I was better at fishing.." said the girl on the right.

"No if I had been better at gathering..." said the middle one.

"No it's his fault for not being better at hunting. I set up the shelter quite nicely." said the girl on the left pointing at the boy.

The arguements and insults started to fly and continued for ten minutes.

Alisdair just sat through all this and sighed.

_How did I end up in this mess? On the one hand I could just leave these kids to fend for themselves...but run the risk of losing my dinners over and over. Or...I can't believe I'm thinking about this...or I could help teach them and hope to hell they leave me alone afterwards._Alisdair thought to himself as the kids kept bickering.

"I'm gonna regret this I just know it." he grumbled to himself as he stood up, and then whistled.

All four of them stopped arguing and looked at Alisdair.

"All right...against my better judgement...I'm going to show you kids the basics of survival."

"Who put you in charge?" asked the girl on the left.

"I believe this does." Alisdair said pointing at his sword. "Now I'm going to need your names."

"I'm called Cale." said the boy.

"Jen." said the girl on the right.

"Sama." said the middle girl.

"Betty." said the girl on the left...after much poking from the others.

"Alright then, Cale, Jen, Sama, and Betty. Let's take a look at your campsite then shall we? Need to see what I'm working with here."

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After ten minutes of walking they arrived.

"This is our campsite." said Betty.

There were four...structures I suppose you could call them.

They were groups of stone with a sheet over the top of them, held down with even more stone on their edges.

A wyvern roar would knock them over in an instant.

"Not bad..." Alisdair said, not wanting to pass too much judgement, since Betty seemed quite proud of her work.

"Now how about your fishing technique?" he asked.

Jen wandered over to her "hut" and pulled out a stick with some string on the end.

"What do you use for bait?" he asked...not even going to ask where the hook was for the pole.

"I wrap a worm in the string." she said, demonstrating.

"Okay not bad...now lets see where you've been fishing." he said.

Jen led him over to a small lake.

Alisdair knelt over it and took a look. He could see that there was a tunnel in the lake, big enough for fish to get through.

Then he saw something in the bottom of the lake, near the shoreline.

"You see these? These are fish eggs. That's why you're not having much luck. Fish only come in here to lay their eggs. This isn't a fishing site...its a nursing site."

Jen looked at the eggs, and then ran back to camp.

"Now what?" he asked himself, going after her.

When he got back he saw Jen carrying a bucket out of her "hut". It was full of tiny fish.

"You've been collecting the eggs?"

"I thought they were some kind of strange stone...I was going to take them back to the village and announce it as a discovery."

"Ok fair enough...but now you have a set of meals...of a sort." Alisdair said.

Then they heard a group of roars overhead.

"You four, get back to my campsite now!" he said, pulling out his Eviscerator.

"Why not stay here?" Betty asked.

"Cus...the wyverns will most likely knock over your camp when it's trying to fight me. Wyverns are stronger than you think." he replied quickly.

"No time to argue, let's go." said Cale, grabbing hold of Betty and dragging her along until she started running as well.

The other two ran with them.

Alisdair lifted his head to the sky and saw about a dozen winged snake-like wyverns descending upon him.

"God damn it...I hate fighting these things with Eviscerator.." he groaned, deflecting the first one's attack with his blade.

He pressed the button on the hlit, just as he swung the blade into a Remobra.

The blades deployed as the main body of the sword made contact...and then the Remobra was shredded as the blades ejected into its body and sliced through.

"That's one down...eleven more to go." Alisdair said, readying himself for another attack.

Six of them divebombed him from the front whilst three came from his left and the other two his right.

"Gotta time this just right..." Alisdair said to himself as they got closer.

Just as they were about to be on top of him, he dropped a Flash Bomb onto the ground.

All eleven of the Remobras dropped like rocks.

Alisdair quickly got to work, slamming his sword into each and every one of them before they could get back up.

He managed to kill five more of them before they managed to get back up and resumed their circling above.

"Ok...that's half of them dead now." Alisdair counted to himself as four of them went for a poison bomb run.

He quickly shielded himself with his sword, which took the brunt of the poison, but he couldn't bring it back down in time to block the two Remobra's that hadn't taken part in the bombing.

"Bloody snakes!" he yelled as he dropped his sword and fell on his back under the weight of the two wyverns.

He struggled to block all of their bites, all the while trying to get to his skinning knife.

Eventually he pulled it out and stabbed it into the mouth of one Remobra, then punched the other one with his now freed arm.

Alisdair then quickly plunged his knife into the skull of the one he just punched.

He checked they were both dead...then looked around and above him.

"Where are the other four?" he asked himself, as he picked up Eviscerator.

He then heard a group of screams.

"The kids!" he yelled as he ran back to his campsite.

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A few minutes later, he got back to camp, to find it under attack by the four remaining Remobra.

The kids had taken shelter inside the tent and closed the flap, holding it closed as best they could.

Alisdair rummaged around in his bag for something.

"Come on...where are you...ah hah! Gotcha!" he said pulling out a Horn.

He blew into it and the noise from it resembled a Wyvern's roar.

The snake-wyverns all turned their heads as one towards the source of the sound.

"Hey snakes, remember me? You don't get off that easy." Alisdair said, readying his Eviscerator.

The wyverns all shrieked at him and flew straight at him.

Alisdair placed the tip of his blade on the ground to the right of him and started to charge it.

This was done by him focusing all his energy into the blade.

When the Remobra were close enough, he let out a roar of his own, and swung his blade upwards and to the left.

He managed to catch all four of them by the neck. They all collided with each other, but before they could recover, Alisdair pressed the blade button on the hilt, and then continued the swing smashing them into the ground, beheading the wyverns in the process.

He slowly sheathed his sword onto his back, and walked over to the tent.

"It's safe to come out now." he said.

All four of them rushed out and grabbed onto Alisdair.

"It's ok...but we've got to get you guys off of this island."

"But we can't go back yet...the tradition says we have to be here a week." said Sama.

"I don't care. You see those wyverns? Their called Remobra. One of their titles is "Heralds of the Elder Dragons." And with this many here..." Alisdair trailed off.

The four of them got the idea.

"Now then, part two of training. How to strike a campsite. Jen, I want you and Sama to go fetch that damn Aptonath over there and bring her back here onto the boat. Cale, you and Betty are going to help me disassemble the tent. Let's get to work."

The two girls ran over to the Aptonath trying to coax it back to the campsite.

Meanwhile, Alisdair went over how to strike a tent.

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In a few hours they had the site completly emptied, all the gear loaded onto the boat and the Aptonath, and were about to set sail.

"What was your job here as a hunter...if you don't mind me asking?" Sama asked.

"I was sent here to observe the feeding patterns of the local Rathalos." Alisdair said. "To see how they survived out here in these conditions."

"Why?" she asked.

Alisdair scratched his head.

"Ok, but promise you won't tell anyone? This is kinda Top Secret." he said whispering to them.

"We promise." all four said at once.

"Well-" Alisdair started before sensing something was watching them.

He looked up at the Volcano, and saw the same Rathalos from before, perched on top of a outstanding rock. A rock that was hanging over the campsite.

Alisdair gave a quick mock salute to the King of the Heavens.

The Rathalos merely snorted and flew down...straight at them.

Alisdair got ready to pull out his sword when he heard the kids behind him shriek.

He looked behind himself and saw a giant sea serpent wyvern. It had blue scales and a slightly yellow underbelly.

It had a crest like a cobras and spikes going along its back.

"That's no Plesioth." he said, not knowing where to turn.

The new monster raised itself higher out of the water, getting ready to smash into the boat.

When suddenly, the Rathalos plummeted into the creature, and proceeded to gouge, claw and rend at it.

The sea creature roared in frustration at this areial assault and tried to fend it off, before giving up and descending into the murky depths below.

Alisdair looked at the Rathalos and gave it a proper salute this time.

The Rathalos roared and flew back to the volcano.

"Well...that's definitly a point in favor of the plan." Alisdair said to himself.

"What plan?" Sama asked once she had recovered from the attack.

So Alisdair told them the story about his team's trip into the Great Forest on the way back to the kids village.

When they got back, he explained the situation to the villagers who thanked him and got themselves started on preparations to defend the village in case the Elder Dragon showed up and attacked the village.

With that Alisdair left, heading back to Pokke Village, writing down everything that had just happened at the Volcano Island.

Including the news about this new monster from below the seas.

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	7. Accumulating Data

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During the week that Grant was off in the Forest and Alisdair was off at the Volcano, Stuart and Steven were going over every single legend and Hunter data they had ever gathered on the subject of Rathalos and Rathians.

It took them an entire day just to sort out which was which. Filing wasn't very high on their list of priorities over the years.

"All right, we have the data we picked up on the Rath species." said Stuart pointing at one pile of papers.

"And this one is the legends associated with the Rath species." Steven said gesturing at the other pile. "Which one do you want to take?"

Both piles were about as tall as they were.

Both hunters then stuck out one hand.

"Rock, paper, scissors!" they both declared.

Stuart hand turned into a fist, whilst Steven's resembled someone making the peace sign.

"I win, so you have to shift through the legends." said Stuart triumphantly.

Steven groaned.

Both hunters took their chosen piles and went to seperate ends of the main room.

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Two days later you could hear the yells from the house across the village.

"Any luck on your end Steven?" Stuart asked, looking over his shoulder.

Both of them had spread their information all across the wall in order to get a better look at it all.

"No, hence the yelling... The legends surrounding the Rath species are...disjointed to put it nicely. And not one so far even has a vague reference to hunting, flight or raising techniques."

Steven sighed.

"What about you? How're things on your wall?"

"A little better. I can fill in the gaps for you about flight patterns and hunting techniques. But even the reports we have here are sketchy. The guys who did this weren't very good at writing anything down, let alone writing. I swear, some of these can't even spell properly, nor hardly any of these are legible, other than the ones we took down."

"Seems to be the way the worlds going. No-one cares about quality of information. It's all smash slash bang these days." Steven mused.

"We are indeed a dieing breed my friend. Speaking of which, we should probably get back to work." Stuart said as he turned back to his wall.

Steven grumbled as he got back to work.

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This continued for the rest of the day, Crystal bringing little snacks for them over the course of the day as they focused on the task at hand.

"Arrgh!" Steven said after a few more hours. "I'm getting no where with these!"

Stuart rubbed at his eyes and looked out the window.

"Ok how about we pick this up tomorrow morning, and swap over. Go over each set of research with a fresh pair of eyes." he suggested.

"Yeah, yeah. Sounds like a plan, but good luck to you on this lot." Steven said waving his hand at the wall of legends.

Both of them went off to their beds and slept through the night.

The next morning both of them came down and grabbed a quick breakfast.

"Stuart...where are the Felynes?" Steven asked looking around the kitchen and Felyne quarters.

They both then looked into the main hall, and saw their staff working on their research.

"Um Crystal?" Stuart said. "What are you guys doing?"

"Nyaaa. We weren't getting much peace and quiet with you two grumbling and yelling at lumps of paper so we decided to get to work. We've found some more information on your Rath breeding thaat you all missed nyaaa." said Crystal waving some sheets of paper at the two of them.

"How can you read this scrawl?" Stuart asked looking over the papers.

"Nyaa. Not every one writes as neatly as you lot do. And we have worked for other hunters before they passed on in some horrible monster hunting accident. So we can descern much more writing than you two can nyaa." Crystal explained.

Steven then went over and gave Crystal a massive hug.

"Thank you you loveable bundle of fur. If you were human I would kiss you right now."

"Nyaa! Get off me you large stinky human or you won't be able to procreate!" Crystal shrieked.

Steven quickly let go, whilst Stuart just stood there chortling.

"Nyaa, now you two, whilst we're doing all your work, you two can do all our work for today." she said with an evil gleam in her eye.

Both hunters looked at each other.

"Uh-oh." they said at the same time.

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After an entire day, where Steven and Stuart cleaned the house from top to bottom, cooked meals for their entire staff as well as themselves, Crystal declared that they had finally gone through all the information.

She had piled all the information they had found that was relevant to raising Raths in one pile, their hunting patterns in another and so on and so on for each different subject about the Rath species.

"Nyaa. That wasn't so hard now was it?" asked Crystal.

"You had several advantages over us. One, you can read any type of writing no matter how illegible it may be. Two, we had already gone over the data before hand. And three, there was more of you working on each wall than just me and Stuart." said Steven.

"You forgot one more advantage nyaaa." said Crystal.

"What Crystal?" asked Stuart.

"Nyaa we're not human. We're Felyne's. Far superior to you monkeys." she said with a grin. "Now get to work. We've rewritten the poorly written notes so even you two can read them. So don't make us regret helping you."

With that all the Felynes went back into their quarters.

"Well let's get started." said Stuart.

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The next morning Steven and Stuart were out in their backyard, constructing what looked like a stable.

"You think this is going to work?" asked Stuart as he hammered in a post.

"Well after going over the data that Crystal and the others managed to acquire, I think that the cave the eggs hatch in acts like a natural pen...we need to try and recreate that right here." Steven said, sawing some boards in half.

"All right...so this won't be able to last them for long though. They seem to grow pretty quickly according to the legends." Stuart pointed out.

"Yeah, so we better hope that Grant's found us a suitable location. This is jsut to get them accustomed to each other and us. You know to make sure they don't try to eat us or each other."

"I thought they did that whole imprinting thing?" asked Stuart.

"They do. But that will be for each of our seperate Raths. The rest of them will probably try to go after each of us, in defense of who they'll percieve as their mother."

"Hmm...that could make things a little more interesting I suppose." Stuart said, as he went back to work on the pen.

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It took them the rest of the week to finish the pen. By the end of it, it looked like a giant dome of wood and stone, with a large hole in the roof. For when the chicks got big enough to fly out.

"I think this'll work out nicely." said Steven.

"Hmm. Well lets hope that Alisdair and Grant managed to accomplish their missions." said Stuart. "Otherwise we'll have a hard time of this later."

Just then they heard two Aptonaths coming up the path.

"Hey guys! You will not believe what I went through in the Hills region." said Grant.

"That's nothing! Try my time at the Volcano!" Alisdair argued.

Both of them dismounted and went inside.

"Is this what you two have been doing whilst we've been gone?" Alisdair asked as he looked at the mess of papers all over the main room.

"Yeah, and building the new pen out back for the Raths." answered Stuart jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

"So why don't you two fill us in on what you encountered out on your missions." suggested Steven.

"I'll go first!" said Grant.

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"So to summarise for my adventure, I trained a new hunter whilst examining the region." said Grant after he had finished telling his story.

"So...whilst you were out there, you bumped into a random girl and trained her?" asked Stuart. "Will we be running into her again?"

Grant shrugged.

"Who knows. All I know is that she's got a fascination with the Garuga's." Grant replied.

"Hmm fair enough, I mean it was the first wyvern she bumped into." Steven said. "And you made a big deal about how smart the damn things are."

Grant thought about this for a bit.

"Suppose you're right. Ok Alisdair, what happened to you?" asked Grant.

"Well first of all, Steven have you ever heard of any other wyverns that live in water besides the Plesioth?" Alisdair asked.

"Wyverns, not so much...but there are old fisherman legends about Leviathans living in the seas. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I bumped into one on my return trip off the Island. Scared the kids like nothing on earth."

"Hold up...kids? Ok Alisdair, start from the start please." said Stuart.

So Alisdair told everyone his story.

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"So you played den-mother to a bunch of kids instead of doing your actual job?" asked Grant, still recovering from laughing at his lunch getting nicked by some kids.

"Oh I did my job. Remember, I first saw the Rathalos go after the Basarios before tangling with that Leviathin thing. And I took down careful notations of the combat...well the second one after the fight of course."

"Of course...but I must admit, that was intriguing behaviour coming from the Rathalos." said Steven. "They don't usually go after monsters outside their territory like that. How far out to sea did you say you were?"

"We were about 3 miles or so out from the island when the Rathalos saved our backsides from the Leviathin. At first I thought it was dive-bombing us, then I heard something rise up from the water behind us...It was scary to experiance I'll tell you that."

Steven mused over Alisdairs notes.

"Hmm...hold on...I think I've seen this description before...be back in a minute." he said dashing off to his room.

"Uh-oh... this can't be good." mumbled Grant.

A few minutes later, Steven came back down with a bundle of papers.

"Here we are! The Lagiakurusu, or Lord of the Seas if you translate it from Felyne." said Steven handing everyone out a sheet.

Grant whistled. "This thing sounds nasty from the legends here."

"And the Rathalos went toe to toe with this thing?" said Stuart.

"Yeah...although I think this thing's a lot meaner when its underwater than above it." said Alisdair going over the legends and what he he saw.

"So not only did we find some new monsters in the Great Forest, but now we have monsters in the sea to contend with...what's next? Giant monsters in the skies?" asked Grant.

Steven rummaged through his papers.

"Yes." he said pulling out a sheet.

"You're kidding me? Besides that Elder Dragon that looks like a damned jellyfish what else is there?" asked Alisdair.

"Well I can't find a proper name for the thing other than the titles Heaven's Catastrophe and Storm Dragon, but its apparently quite deadly and never leaves the skies. It's even bigger than the Yamatsukami." Steven replied. "If these legends are to be believed."

"Well, if that's the case then, this Rath programme is beginning to look better and better for the whole Hunting community, if these Sky Wyverns ever show up." said Stuart.

"Well we better get some sleep, because if our time-scale is correct, the eggs should be hatching within the next two weeks." Steven said gathering up the papers and heading back to his room.

"Hey, how do we define if our eggs hatch into a boy or a girl?" asked Alisdair.

"Something to do with the temperature of the egg prior to its hatching, during the development stages...which is kind of between now and hatch day." said Grant. "Low temperatures make girls and high temperatures make boys. But you've got to make sure the egg stays above 60 degrees or else its gonna die."

"Hunh..." said Alisdair, before dashing off upstairs with some coal from the fireplace.

"So we figured out who's having what gender yet?" asked Stuart.

"I figured that their is one temperature that's slap bang in the middle...so we could leave it to chance." said Grant.

"So...instead of pre-determining which gender we get, your going to leave it to chance? What if we get all boys? Rathalos are pretty territorial if you remember." said Steven as he came back down the stairs.

"Hmm I hadn't thought about that...ok so what do we do? Two males, two females or one male, three females?" asked Grant.

"We'll draw straws. I think we should go with one male and three females." suggested Steven. "Just to insure we don't get too many fights."

"Nah, make it two males. Don't want too much of an inbreeding problem if it comes down to a breeding program as well." said Stuart.

"Ok then, whoever draws the short straws will make theirs male, and the ones who get the long straws will make theirs girls." said Grant. "My mum did want a little grand-daughter..." he mused.

"I don't think she wants a fire breathing monster for a grand-daughter...that's the job for the mother in law." Alisdair said with a grin, that was answered with groans from the rest of the group.

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	8. How can you tell?

A quick note I want to make concerning the water wyvern. Some of my readers have the misunderstanding that I'm only using the PSP monsters...I'm dragging in everything :)

So if anyone notices a monster they haven't encountered in PSP then its from the Wii game or if I can find a good enough excuse, the Online MH game overseas and vice versa.

Also, for who got what gender Rath in this chapter, it was completely random. I tossed a coin for each person. Heads for Rathalos, Tails for Rathian.

Oh and bonus points for those of you who can figure out where the names for some of the Rath babies came from :) Leave a review with your answer if you want a chance at getting those points :)

With that in mind, sit back and enjoy. And thank you one and all for favouriting this and leaving ur reviews. Quick note, the 0000 line I use in between my lines of text is to show...um I guess time passing or something. And don't take each line as a paragraph...I've found that not everyone likes large blocks of text. I've designed my stories so that they can be easily read on whatever system you are using to read them, whether its your PC or your iPod or whatever else you can read stuff on the internet from. Also its a throwback from my Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfic. Well there's lots of chatting going on in an anime isn't there? :)

Now with that rant out of the way, please enjoy this new chapter.

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It had been a week since everyone had gotten back together. The first thing they did the morning after they had gotten back together was draw straws, to see who got what gender for their Rath egg. The agreement was for two boys and two girls.

They all drew their straws from Crystal, who had been elected to insure that fair play was involved.

Grant and Alisdair wound up with the boys, and Stuart and Steven wound up with girls.

"Well, hotheads for hotheads." said Steven as Alisdair and Grant high-fived each other.

After that, they had all gone off again to seperate zones to "farm" some meat for when the eggs hatched. Each hunter went to a different zone to gather different kinds of meat, in case the hatchlings decided to be picky about their food.

Alisdair returned to the Volcano island, and grabbed some Apceros meat, along with some local berrys and plants.

Grant went to the Forest and Hills to retrieve some Mosswine, and Aptonath meat.

Steven went off to the Snowy Mountains to gather Popo meat as well as whatever Kelbi's he could find.

Meanwhile Stuart went into the desert to gather up some Piscine Livers from the Cephali living there. (Cephalos being the singular...I'm guessing Cephali is the plural .)

However they did encounter a few problems.

Alisdair kept sitting on rocks which turned out to be either Basarios' or Gravios'.

Grant continuously ran into swarms of Yian Kut-Ku. He enjoyed those fights.

Steven encountered several Tigrex's and Khezus.

And Stuart kept bumping into Diablos and Monoblos'.

But after the week was up, they all returned home with the required meat and several more besides. And they traded each other the materials they had retrieved from the wyverns they had encountered.

Grant gave Steven the Kut-Ku ears he had collected, so he could make more Psychic gems for his armor.

Steven shared out the Lightning Sacs he got from the Khezus.

Stuart handed to Grant the Diablos shells and scales.

And Alisdair shared out the Fire Wyvern Brain Stems he had managed to get from the Gravios'.

All in all not a bad week.

So with all that done, there was nothing left for the four of them to do, except wait for the eggs to hatch.

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"Nyaaaaa! They're moving!" Crystal yelled as she inspected the egg chamber.

The other day the hunters had moved the eggs into a specially made four way chamber in the main room. It was so they could keep an eye on all the eggs at once, and still have a seperate imprint on the chicks when they hatched.

Everyone rushed in and stood over their egg.

"Okay guys, get ready to become fathers." said Stuart.

The eggs wobbled around in their boxes. There was enough room around them for the chicks to move around when they got out of the eggs.

Then Stuart's egg cracked first, then Steven's, then Grant's, and finally Alisdairs.

The cracks then began to spread all over the top of the eggs, then finally the tops burst open.

Inside each egg was a little miniature Rathalos or Rathian. And lord did they look gooey. Their spikes were just little bumps on their scales. At the minute their scales were all the smae shade of grey.

"Um, id we do the whole temperature thing right?" asked Grant. "They all seem to be well...grey."

"That's normal. Their pigmentation should occur within a week of emergence." said Steven.

"Hunh?" asked Alisdair.

"They'll get their colours during this next week." translated Stuart.

"So until then...how do we tell?" asked Grant. "Do we lift them up and check the plumbing?"

Alisdairs gave off a little baby roar as he saw his "daddy". Obviously the baby didn't enjoy the sight of his new "daddy" or he was simply roaring at Grant's suggestion of "checking out the plumbing".

Hearing this the other three then started to give off their own little roars as well.

"Aw isn't that just cute." said Alisdair, reaching in to give his new Rathalos a tickle under the chin...who then promptly tried to bite his fingers off.

"Ha ha ha!" Grant laughed as Alisdair quickly pulled his fingers out of his chicks reach.

"I think they're hungry." said Stuart with a chuckle. "Maybe we should get them fed."

Upon hearing this all four babies renewed their mewing and roaring.

"Yup I think that's what it is...so do we give them meat straight away?" asked Alisdair.

"Not exactly. We've been mashing up some of the meat, to make it into a kind of liquid form. Crystal?" Steven called.

"I've got their dinner here nyaa. I hope they understand we're not on the menu nyaaa." Crystal said as she brought over a trolley with four tubs of meaty mash.

Each hunter picked up a tub, and then lowered in half of the tub slowly into the bits which held their chick.

The Rathalos babies quickly dove into their food, whilst the Rathians sniffed it a few times first, then dug in with gusto as well.

"Wow...who knew they had such big appetites for newborns?" said Grant.

"Suppose we should give them names...you know, so we can call them a lot easier." suggested Alisdair.

"Makes sense." said Stuart.

"I'll call mine Ikiknue." said Alisdair. (Pronounced: I-kick-new)

"Mine will be called Skyfury." said Steven.

"I think I'll go with Ryakko." Grant declared.

Stuart just sat there and thought about it.

"Well?" Grant asked. "You've got to come up with a name for your baby wyvern."

"I'm thinking about it..." said Stuart, a little abruptly.

"Well until you come up with a name, we'll leave you alone with your wyvern. Everyone else, lets get these hatchlings into their new rooms." Alisdair said, putting on his armored gauntlets, in case Ikiknue decided he would make a good snack again.

Steven, Grant and Alisdair picked up their new arrivals and took them to their rooms.

Meanwhile, Stuart and his Rathian just stared into each others eyes.

It was quite cute, seeing that little Rathian stare into her "daddy's" eyes.

Then she burped in his face.

"Lovely..." muttered Stuart as he wiped his face. The burp had come with some free spit.

The Rathian just gave a giggle...or something that sounded like how a wyvern might giggle.

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It had been a couple of weeks since the hatching, and the wyverns were proving to be somewhat problematic.

Alisdair's one kept running around and trying to eat anything not nailed to the floor...and anything that was as well.

Grant's decided that it would be funny to play hide and seek...usually hiding Grant's clothes around the house, forcing him to seek them out and then get them patched up as Ryakko chewed on them as he hid them.

Skyfury took great delight in plopping herself on top of Steven's head as he slept. If you've ever woken up to find your cat on your face, you'll get the idea...except substitute cat, with baby dragon. She even did it when he was just sitting down somewhere. It had gotten to the point that Steven was pretty sure that Skyfury considered herself to be part hat.

Meanwhile Stuart was still trying to come up with a name for his little Rathian...even as she continued to burp in his face, nibble on his toes, and generally run amok around the house.

All this activity gave Crystal an even crueler streak. She demanded from the hunters triple pay for all the Felynes in their employ, so long as the chicks were around in the house. She was an evil negotiator. Either the Felyens got the pay, or they would stop working.

It had taken a while for Ikiknue to understand that the Felynes were NOT in fact furry lumps of meat for him to eat. Afterwards though all the Felynes tails were shorter by an inch or so.

When the wyverns had hatched they were the size of Alsatian puppys...now they were double that size and it had only been a couple of weeks.

Right now all four of them were in the main room of the house, discussing their next move.

"Guys, we've got to come up with something...I don't think that at their current rate of growth that the pen outside is going to hold them for more than a week." said Steven as he once more rebalanced himself. He had resigned himself to the fact that Skyfury enjoyed being perched on his shoulders. She had gotten too big for his head anymore so now draped herself around his shoulders across the back of his neck. If it wasn't for the fact that she was moving, you could think she was some kind of scarf...a big, lumpy, green scaly scarf. With claws. And spikes.

Although she did position herself so that she didn't injure Steven with them. That had been established early on.

"We could take them over to that site I found." suggested Grant, as he flicked Ryakko's nose. "No! No stealing daddy's shoes whilst he's still wearing them!"

Ryakko managed to look a little embarressed about being admonished in front of his friends.

"That could work...but someone would have to stay with them full-time in order to make sure they didn't get up to any mischief or trouble OW!" Alisdair yelled as Ikiknue nibbled on Alisdair's arm. "All right I get it, your hungry, wait a couple of minutes please."

Ikiknue gave him a look that roughly translates as, "Hurry up then and I won't need to eat your arm."

"We could do it as a rota. One week one of us is there with them, the next week its a different peson and so on. They should all be familiar enough with all of us by now." said Stuart as he twirled his Rathian around in time so as nto to be burped in the face again.

"I think yours is going to keep doing that until she breathes fire." Alisdair suggested. Ikiknue gave him a little nip on his leg. "Ow! Jeez, you've got a worse sense of time than my old dog. Fine come on then."

Alisdair got up out of his chair and headed towards the kitchen, Ikiknue trotting alongside looking very pleased with himself.

Stuart looked at his little wyvern.

"Is that why you keep burping in my face? Your trying to roast it off?" Stuart asked, holding his Rathian.

The two of them stared at each other, until she burped in his face again and gave that little wyvern giggle.

"Then again it could just be gas." Grant suggested, trying not to laugh along with the little Rathian. Ryakko took this as a signal that he was off the hook...and promptly stole Grant's left boot and ran upstairs as fast as his little legs would take him.

"Not again! Oy! Ryakko! Get back here you little..." Grant shouted as he gave chase.

So Stuart was left alone with his wyvern.

"So what do I call you then hmm?" Stuart asked his Rathian, who was right now licking her scales clean.

She stopped what she was doing and stared at Stuart.

"I could call you Burpy since you love burping so much." Stuart joked.

This prompted "Burpy" to leap onto his face and force him to land on his back on the ground. With his head pinned underneath the little wyvern.

"Okay...so Burpy isn't an option I take it?" Stuart asked.

She simply shook her head.

"Ok...let me run some names by you and you either shake your head if you don't like them, or nod your head if you do. Once we have five names you like, that's what we'll call you. Deal?" he asked.

The little wyvern burped in his face in agreement.

"Well let's get started then." said Stuart.

This went on for the rest of the day. Stuarts wyvern was _very_ picky about names.

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Okay then dear readers. Here's a little challenge for you. What do you guys think Stuart's Rathian should be called?

Leave your suggestions in the review bit and the best one will make it into the Fanfiction.

So get cracking and let your imaginations take flight!

It can't be anything silly like "burpy", it has to suit a girl wyvern. Other than that, anything goes.

So leave your suggestions in your review and I'll decide which ones best.

So with that out of the way...please leave your review after the tone.

Beeeep.

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	9. Gonna lose my lunch!

I've picked a winner from the Name a Rathian contest...my friends also came up with some names but omitted to put them here in the comments section. But I have picked an overall winner. So if you want to find out what the name of Stuart's Rathian is...then read this chapter! :)

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_In the future of Minegarde. Some hundred years in the future._

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"Almost two months have passed now in our story. And during that time, a number of things came to pass." said the story teller to the gathered children.

"First of all, the wyverns had all been moved to the Forest and Hills camp that Grant had staked out earlier. Of course that brought with it its own problems.

The local hunters thought that the Rathalos' and Rathians' were wild ones and fair game. Several beatings later and the message was made clear.

Then came the problem of explaining to the wyverns that they weren't to follow the hunters back to the village...oh the panicking screams for the first week or so when the village thought it was under attack before realising it was the Rathalos' and Rathians' just trying to follow the hunters home.

Ikiknue got his head stuck in the hunter's home the first time they came back...the silly Rathalos tried to get in through the front door. It took all three of the others pulling on his tail with their mouths to get him loose.

Second thing that happened was that Stuart finally came up with a name for his Rathian. Well he did this before the move...but you get the idea. He decided to call her Gurren after a legendary female warrior. Or was it her blade that was called Gurren...I forget.

Anyhow, what followed in those hills and forests, only the four hunters know...and they have never spoken of what they did there, despite their promise of reports. We can only assume they went through a practice that is carried on even to this day. Each Wyvern Rider must go through a secret rite that is unknown to anyone until they join, and are sworn to secrecy...and I believe that these four hunters started this ritual.

Again we can only guess as to what happened back then." he finished before taking a smoke on his elaborate pipe.

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_Present day Minegarde_

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"Aaaaarrrgghhh!" Alisdair yelled. "Ikiknue! What have I told you about stealing my dinner?" he shouted, thumping the red wyvern on its snout with the flat of his Eviscerator. The wyverns were now twice the size of Aptonath and had now come into their hues of red and green.

Everyone was camped out in the cave that Grant had found those months back. They'd done some expansion work on it in order to accommodate four wyverns at a time, along with the tent for the hunters.

The rest of the group chortled at their friends misfortune. This was the third night this week that Alisdair had left his dinner plate unguarded...and Ikiknue was quick to take advantage of an unguarded meal.

The other wyverns simply shook their scaly heads at Ikiknue with their wings over their heads...the wyvern equivalent of a face-palm.

"Seriously Alisdair, I think Ikiknue just does that to teach you to always be on your guard." Steven suggested. Skyfury nodded in agreement. She may now be twice the size of an Aptonath, but she still kept herself perched over her rider...old habits die hard. At least she wasn't trying to perch on him.

"Or he could just be messing with your head for the fun of it." Grant said with a grin on his face. Ryakko gave a reptilian laugh.

"Or he could just be simply a greedy Rathalos." Stuart offered. "Heaven's knows he eats enough when he's out hunting the Aptonaths."

Gurren sighed at the simple explanation.

"Or it could be all three ideas rolled into one..." muttered Alisdair after he'd calmed down a little. Ikiknue looked away and appeared to be whistling...if a Rathalos could whistle.

The others fell about laughing at this as Alisdair looked at his Rathalos and spotted this "innocent" act.

"Oh so you're a little comedian are you?" Alisdair asked.

Ikiknue gave Alisdair a quick look, stuck out his tongue, then resumed his "whistling".

Even the other wyverns were finding it hard now not to burst into their verion of laughing.

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The next morning they all got up and stepped outside of the cave. Each hunter was carrying a strange looking saddle.

"Okay guys...its now or never." said Grant.

"Yup, we've put it off long enough." agreed Steven.

"So I'm assuming we're skipping breakfast then?" Alisdair asked.

"Unless you feel like having it make a return trip later, then yeah." said Stuart.

The wyverns came out of the cave through the hole in the ceiling and landed in the plains just outside.

They all went up to their respective wyverns and started to attack the saddles.

Once they had checked the saddles were secure, they all got up.

"You guys ready for this?" Stuart asked, posing the question to hunters and wyverns alike.

Ikiknue suddenly started looking nervous.

"Oh what's up now Ikiknue?" Alisdair asked. "Not scared are you? At least you can fly you big lummox. I fall off of you and I'm dead."

Ikiknue turned his head so he looked at Alisdair. The look he gave him carried the message, "What do you think I'm worried about idiot?"

"Hey less of the idiot and more on the focusing all right?" Alisdair asked Ikiknue, patting him on the base of the neck. "I'm sure one of the others or yourself will be able to catch me if I fall off...just make sure that if it's you not to eat me!"

Ikiknue looked as if he was actually considering that last proposal...right up until Alisdair thumped him on the top of his head with his lance. They had all brought with them a basic Iron Lance so they could practice aerial combat if they got the chance. Assuming they could get off the ground.

"All right if you two are quite through?" asked Steven. "We've all ridden with one another on the ground and done short sky hops...now its time to try a full on flight session."

Skyfury nodded and looked as if she was gonna try it right there and then.

"Not yet, missy not yet." Steven said reigning her in.

"Ok, here's the plan. We are all going to take a run up of the cliff face over there." said Stuart pointing at the cliff top. A recent earthquake had sheared off the rest of the plains that they were next to, effectively making the cave the top of a mountain. "Then we are going to glide for a bit, then start flapping. We'll do a few laps around the cave, and then, once we're all confident with the prospect of not being on the ground, split up and do a little hunting. Everyone got that?" he asked.

Wyverns and hunters alike nodded.

"Steven you can go first, cus I've got a funny feeling that Skyfury isn't going to wait much longer before she decides to go airborne." Stuart chuckled looking at Skyfury. She was hopping between her two feet, almost as if prepping up for her flight.

"Okay...you ready girl?" Steven asked.

Skyfury gave a quick nod and then ran towards the edge of the cliff...and jumped straight off wings spread.

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Steven yelled as the plummeted down the face of the cliff.

After a few seconds of plummeting, she started to flap her wings and gained some altitude. Soon enough she was back to the level of the cliff top.

"Holy mother of...Skyfury, did you have to cut it so close?" he asked. Skyfury gave a little chuckle.

"How was it Steven?" Grant asked over the radio. They'd fixed the cranking problem...sort of. They had it installed next to a waterfall that permanently cranked it for them.

"Well now that my life has stopped flashing before my eyes...not too bad. Just be careful, I think the wyverns have all concocted some kind of plan to scare us shitless the first time through." Steven replied. Skyfury gave him a look that said, "Would we do something like that?"...she even batted her eyelids at him in an innocent manner.

"Keep your eyes on the sky!" he said. Skyfury grumbled at turned her head back forwards. "I'm wound up enough as it is dear. I know you could probably fly around here with your head facing backwards, but please go easy on me."

"Um, Steven you do know we can hear you right?" asked Stuart.

"Yeah well, let's see you lot up here." Steven replied.

Just then Steven heard a scream. Followed quickly by a whooping noise.

"Hey Grant...can you turn off the radio when your gonna scream please?" Alisdair asked.

"I'm sorry..but I think Steven may be onto something with the wyverns and a plot." he said once he caught up to Steven.

"Enjoying the view?" Steven asked. Both him and Grant were now hovering over the ceiling hole of the cave.

"Oh hell's yes!" Grant whooped, rubbing Ryakko's neck vigorously. "This big guy tried to make me go to the toilet in my armour for a second but now...lord it is gorgeous up here."

Next came along Stuart very silently.

"How did you do that without screaming your head off?" Grant asked.

Stuart just kept his mouth shut.

"I see...Gurren, did you take him parallel to the cliff face and then do a perpendicular glide a few inches from the ground before rapidly ascending?" Steven asked.

Stuart's wyvern had the good grace to look a little embaressed at being found out.

"Ikiknuuuuueeeeeee!" Alisdair yelled. A few seconds later Ikiknue and Alisdair popped up next to them.

"So what did he do with you?" Grant asked.

"This genius here, decided to dive-bomb the cliff face, whilst spinning, then opening his wings slowly and then rapidly ascending. Basically I felt like a god damn spinning Yo-yo. There was no horizontal area whatsoever." Alisdair said very angrily. Ikiknue just chuckled in that way wyverns do.

"Well I guess the Wyverns felt like introducing us to their world in a very memorable fashion. I think the point they were trying to make is that we're just along for the ride." suggested Grant.

"It could also be preperation for how they do aerial combat." Steven suggested. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't recall seeing how the Rath wyverns fight each other in the air."

They all thought about that. Then the wyverns got a sniff of something and started to fidget.

"Looks like they smell something...what is it Ikiknue?" Alisdair asked.

Ikiknue roared and then so did the other three.

"Alright then, you guys show us what you smell." said Grant.

"All we've got on us are some Iron Lances though..." said Steven. "If we do get into a fight with something, shouldn't we be better armed?"

"Easy way to find out whether or not we need better weapons. You're wearing your Tigrex gear right? So use the Psychic stuff." suggested Stuart.

"I've never tried it under these conditions, but I'll give it a shot." Steven said as he activated the armour.

His eyes went bright blue with energy.

"Okay, I'm sensing our Rathalos and Rathians here...going further out...what the-?" he said before getting a sharp pain in his head.

Skyfury got very worried at that point. Steven had just been hurt by something she couldn't see.

"I'm alright girl...just wasn't expecting any backlash." he said, calming Skyfury down.

"What was it?" asked Grant.

"Something big...if I didn't know any better, I would have said it was the size of an Akantor...but it was flying.." Steven shuddered.

There was a crack of thunder in the distance.

"Guys...that storm seems to be quite big..and heading this way!" said Alisdair pointing at what looked like a massive hurricane that wasn't touching the ground.

"Alright, let's get back into the cave and wait it out. Any towns in this general direction guys?" asked Stuart. "In case we need to warn anyone."

"None that I can think off right away." said Grant. "The closest one is Kokoto, but thats a good ways to the east of here, well out of the path of that storm."

Whilst they were discussing what they were going to do, the wyverns were becoming more and more restless as the storm grew closer.

"That storms getting closer way too fast...storms don't normally move that quickly do they?" asked Alisdair as he tried to calm Ikiknue.

"Not normally no...will you calm down Skyfury, what's gotten into you?"

"Um, guys...am I seeing things or is there something in that storm?" Grant asked.

They all looked at the centre of the storm. There was a definite shadow inside it.

"Steven?" Stuart asked as he regained his balance on Gurren.

"Already on it." he replied, his eyes glowing with blue light. "Holy shit...there's a god damn monster in there...and its a big one." he said before he got a pain in his head.

"You ok?" asked Grant, trying to regain some measure of control over Ryakko.

"Talking to me or the Rathalos?" Steven joked, still holding his head. "Cause, if it's me you're asking...whatever that creature is..it does not like anyone poking at it."

The wyverns continued to roar and buck around in mid-air.

"I think we should get these guys inside the cave...now!" yelled Alisdair as the winds around them began to pick up at the storm's approach.

"Good idea!" Stuart yelled back.

They all forced the wyverns into the cave through the hole in the roof of the cave, and then closed up the hole with a kind of latch they had installed a couple of days ago. It was so that the wyverns couldn't get out unless they wanted them to, and so no other wyverns could get in.

Outside they could hear the winds almost tearing across the plains and the forests. There were several cracks of thunder from up above, and then they heard a kind of deep echoing roar from up above. They could occasionally hear thumps of something banging against the sides of the cave wall outside. Lightning struck against the sides of the cave along with its top several times throughout the night. The thumping from outside continued the whole night, as did the thunder and lightning strikes. There was that strange roar again, and then there was silence.

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The following morning, the hunters and the wyverns poked their heads outside the cave. It was quite comical to see the wyverns heads pop up out of the hole in the ceiling one at a time.

The devastation was absolute. The forest beyond the plain of grass in front of the cave was completly destroyed. There were bodies of Aptonaths, Velociprey, Yian Kut-Ku's, and a whole lot more creatures all strewn across the devastated forest and plains. There were even some bodies still trailing down from the side of the cave.

"Good lord..." Alisdair said, running his hand through his hair. Steven just looked out at the destruction. Grant wandered over to the body of an Aptonath and knelt down to it to inspect the damage. Stuart whistled to Gurren so he could get an aerial view of the area.

The Aptonath Grant was inspecting started to move. Grant jumped back and pulled out his Hammer. He'd put it back on before coming out this morning. Seeing their friend draw his weapon, Steven pulled out his Bow, Alisdair his Greatsword and Stuart his Switch Axe. All four wyverns primed themselves for battle as well, smoke issuing from their maws as they stoked their flames.

Out from underneath the Aptonath emerged someone garbed in armour that was purple with streaks of orange and was spiked. The under armour was green, and their face was masked by a pale purple bone mask. They pulled out with them a a green edged blade with an orange handle, and a shield that looked like a Yian Garuga's crest.

"Oh...that...was a rough night." groaned the hunter in a girl's voice. Then she turned around and saw the four hunters aiming their weapons at her, with two Rathalos and two Rathians behind them.

"Behind you!" she yelled, fumbling around in her bag. She pulled out a crude Flash Bomb and was about to throw it.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Steven said, pulling back on the Bow string with a large arrow notched on it...aiming straight at her "I don't think Skyfury would very much appreciate being blinded right now."

"Hunh...what do you mean Skyfury? Those are Rathalos and Rathians! They're meant to be hunted." she exclaimed, before Grant disarmed her.

"Master Grant? Is that you?" the girl asked, raising her face mask. It revealed a familiar set of blue eyes.

"Hali? That you? Good lord girl, I'm guessing you managed to get that Yian Garuga then." he said looking at her armour and weapons. "Several of them."

"Nope actually, just the one. It was actually bigger than the one you and I bumped into Master. So it gave me loads more materials. Plus it was eating the one we bumped into. So more stuff...but what's with the wyverns?" she asked pointing at Ryakko and the others.

Ryakko strode over towards her and started sniffing.

"Easy now Hali, he's just checking you out." Grant said as she tried to shrink away from the big wyvern sniffing her like a dog.

Then Ryakko gave her a giant lick from the bottom of her armour, over her face and over her head.

"See? He likes you." Grant said barely suppressing a grin at Hali's condition. She was covered in Rathalos slobber.

"Eeeeeeeww!" she exclaimed whilst trying to wipe off the slobber...without much luck since Ryakko kept re-applying any she managed to somehow get off.

"You remember when you asked me what I was doing here oh so many months ago?" Grant asked Hali after they had all returned back to the cave and got her all cleaned up.

"Yeah I had asked you what you were doing out here, and you replied that it would change the way we hunted if it worked...I'm guessing the wyverns here have something to do with that plan?" she asked pointing at the wyverns who were standing behind their respective hunters.

"Yup. We've raised these guys from eggs. And aside from the odd difficulty here and there, they have become our closest allies. The idea is to ride them in hunts against large monsters that otherwise are quite hard to hunt, or to use them as a defense force. Like in situations against Fatalis', Lao Shun Lungs, and other monsters like that." Grant explained. "This is Ryakko, whom you've already met. Alisdair's is the other Rathalos, he's called Ikiknue. Steven's is the perching Rathian. She's called Skyfury. And Stuart's is Gurren."

Meanwhile the others were simply observing Grant's apprentice.

"So this is the girl you saved and trained?" Alisdair asked. "Right where we're sitting?"

"That's right. Master Grant trained me right here." she replied proudly.

"Was this whole 'Master' title your idea Grant?" asked Stuart, slightly amused yet disturbed at this 16 year old girl calling Grant her Master.

"She means it as the whole 'Student Master' thing. And it was her idea. I simply said, that if she felt like it she could when she brought up the subject." Grant said defending himself.

"Ok ok no need to get touchy, I was only wondering." Stuart said, leaving the door wide open for Alisdair.

"You two didn't ..." Alisdair left the question hanging.

"There goes one foot." Steven muttered.

"No!" Hali and Grant said at the same time.

"Oh...well its just with the whole her calling you Master and you being the teacher...and I mean come on..look at her!" he said.

"There goes the other one." Steven muttered.

Both Hali and Grant advanced on Alisdair, weapons gleaming in the campfire light.

"Um guys?" Alisdair asked looking imploringly at Stuart and Steven.

"Should we?" Steven asked, knowing the answer already.

"Nah. He's the one who dug the hole. Let's see him get out of it." Stuart chuckled.

"Ikiknue?" Alisdair asked his Rathalos.

Ikiknue simply looked at the situation, then at Ryakko, then shook his head in the negative. Steven burst out laughing.

"Ha ha! Even your wyvern realises this is your mess. Besides if he got involved then Ryakko would get involved and then well..." Steven finished leaving the thought hanging in the air.

All the meanwhile Grant and Hali advanced on Alisdair who had by this point stood up and was slowly backing away from the murderous pair.

"Now come one guys...you know I was only joking!" said Alisdair.

"You think I'm not good enough for Master Grant?" Hali asked, sharpening her Raven Blade as she advanced on him.

Steven and Stuart looked at each other and could barely suppress their laughter at the situation Alisdair had gotten himself into. Grant looked a little worried at that last comment from Hali. Then resumed his advances on Alisdair.

"No no no...You're quite beautiful..it's just...oh hell just kill me already." groaned Alisdair as he couldn't move backwards any further as he had just bumped into the wall.

Grant and Hali looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"Oh you were right Master! He is easy once you know how to work his brain into mush." Hali said. Then she looked at Alisdair. "Do you really think I'm beautiful?" she asked fluttering her eyelashes whilst sharpening her Raven Blade.

Steven just put his head into his left hand and groaned.

_Trust Grant to find the one person as crazy as himself. _Steven thought to himself.

"Do I hear wedding bells?" chuckled Stuart.

"No!" Alisdair yelled. Hali then glared at him.

"Good lord, I didn't know you had three feet Alisdair." said Steven as Hali advanced on him again. Then they all heard a roar from outside the cave...followed by several more roars.

Whatever was out there, there was a lot of them...and they sounded pissed.

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	10. Time to leave the nest

Okay, for this chapter, the O that I use to seperate stuff will deal with each hunters own perspective when it reaches a certain point in this story. Just so that its easier to discern whos is whos as the perspectives are all happening at the same time. Now, enjoy!

And sorry for the delay in this, I've been really busy with University work and had a bit of writers block as well. Same excuse for my other fanfics for those of you who read them...well not so much the Yu-Gi-Oh! one...kind of need Bigbudddo to finish up some bits in his one...the bugger says he's finished it but he hasnt uploaded the chapters yet.

I think he's doing that to purposely annoy me XD Now then, let's get back to the much anticipated action!

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_In the future of Minegarde. Some hundred years in the future._

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"What happened next Elder?" asked one of the children gathered around the fireplace. The Elder had told them that after whatever ritual had taken place, a great flying monster had ravaged the region, and Grant had bumped into his old apprentice Hali again.

There were a whole slew of questions pouring forth from their minds. The Elder chuckled at the thought. For some reason it gave him an image of words coming out of the childrens ears and mouths like waterfalls.

"If you stop asking questions, then maybe I can tell you the answers." he replied. "What I can tell you is that from the reports they gave, the devastation caused by this monster from the heavens had upset the survivng wyverns...and they had all gathered themselves together to the spot where the storm had originated from...unfortunatly that was the cave they were using as their camp site."

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_Present day Minegarde._

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"Guys? Any of you ever seen monsters like these before?" asked Hali, peering through a crack in the door.

Standing outside of the cave stood several dozen purple raptor monsters with fins at the sides of their heads...with at least four larger versions standing over them.

As well as the new kind of raptors...there were also the regular Velociprey variety, several Yian-Kut-Ku, Yian Garuga, and some kind of new wyvern that looked like a miniature mossy mountain..until it started to move. It had curled yellow horns, one on either side of its head. Small stumpy forearms, and a very very large clubbed tail the size of its main body.

"Well the purple raptors are a new one on me...and so is the walking mountain." replied Alisdair.

Steven was going over the Felyne legends journal he brought with him.

"Anything in there?" asked Grant, getting a little antsy at so many monsters being so close.

"Gimme a minute...I'm having to translate on the fly here...no not you, not you either..." Steven muttered as he flicked through the pages. "Aha! Eureka! I think I've found our guests."

He placed the journal flat out on the ground at the appropriate pages.

"Okay...the raptors outside are something called Jaggis. The walking mountain is called a...Doboruberuku." Steven said translating as best he could. "Literally the name means, Hammer Tailed Wyvern."

Grant looked through the crack. "I wonder why?" he asked sarcastically. "Now how to we beat these things?"

"Well, the Jaggi according to this, are weakest to Fire based attacks. Basically same tactics as Velociprey as far as this text is concerned." Steven replied.

"Okay...but what about the Dobo out there?" asked Stuart hiking his thumb over his shoulder.

"Um...its weakest to Fire, then Ice and Lightning..its tactics seem to be similar to how a hunter would use their hammer..it also trys to ram people with its horns. Oh and when it finishes its little spin attack with its tail, it either slides towards a hunter at random..or jumps into the air and crashes onto the ground causing a small localised quake..." Steven finished.

Everyone absorbed this information. Meanwhile the wyverns outside continued their roaring.

"Okay, so we've got new raptors which we know how to fight, and a hammer wielding monster that likes to throw its weight around." Alisdair summarised. "You've fought one kind of monster raptor you've fought them all."

"How come we haven't seen these monsters before though?" asked Hali. "I've been hunting in these Hills for a while now and never met them."

"They probably lived somewhere deeper in the region...but with that storm last night its rearranged the terrain and territories." suggested Stuart. "Whatever the reason, we need to figure out what we need to do. Before those monsters try to get in here by brute force."

To prove his point several Jaggi had already started trying to claw their way through the doorway. Their claws appeared to be sharper than their Velociprey cousins.

"Ok then...we can't get out through the front door, cus of the raptors blocking the way along with the giant hammer beast...we can't go up the way on our wyverns..." said Grant.

"Why not?" asked Hali.

"Because, there are several Kut-Kus out there and a Garuga. With the Garuga leading them...there are too many of them for four Rath Wyverns to take on. And who knows whether or not those Jaggi can climb up the side of the mountain and jump up to try and join in the fight?" Grant explained.

"So we're trapped?" she moaned. Steven's eyes had been glowing blue during this whole conversation.

"Maybe not...the monster signatures seem to be dropping off." he said slowly, as if suspicious.

Alisdair took a quick look outside. "Hey! You're right...the monsters are all killing each other. Looks like their all trying to claim this spot as their territory...its like a giant monster free for all."

Everyone took quick turns to peek through the cracks in the door. It was true, the wyverns and raptors were all turning on one another. The jaggi's were battling the velociprey, the kut-kus were turning on each other, and the Garuga was battling with the Dobo.

"Okay, this looks like a good time to get the hell out of here then." suggested Hali, running towards the rathalos and rathians. They roared in agreement.

"Let's saddle up!" said Grant, rushing to Ryakko. All five of them ran to the wyverns and started to mount up on them, taking with them some better weapons, just in case. Steven took his Bow, Alisdair his Eviscerator, Grant his Hammer, and Stuart his own Bow. Hali jumped onto the back of Grant's wyvern as well and held on tight.

With a burst of wind all four wyverns took off into the air and went through the hole in the roof. What they saw outside was a slaughter. Even more monsters had arrived by now and they were all fighting each other with tooth, nail and flame. Before they could analyse the best situation, they heard a roar from above them.

"What the hell?" asked Alisdair looking up. All of them followed his gaze. Diving towards them was a group of Rathalos. Four of them. All silver in hue.

"Shit! Everyone split! Now!" Steven yelled as he urged Skyfury away from the others. The other three took their lead and legged it. The incoming silvers broke their formation and each went after a wyvern and its riders.

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"Skyfury! You focus on keeping us away from that beast and its flames got it? I'll handle the distance combat." Steven yelled as a bolt of flame shot past his head, narrowly missing Skyfury's right wing. She roared in agreement and began to ascend so that he could get a better shot at their pursuer.

The Silver Rathalos quickly banked into a nearby cloud formation as Steven let loose the first lot of arrows.

"Nice try...but not going to work on me." muttered Steven to himself as he used the armor's Psychic power to locate the wyvern. As soon as he did, he kept the power going as he let loose some more arrows, some intentionally missing its target to lure the wyvern into a false security, others just grazing it. "Skyfury, ascend a few more feet, and then tilt yourself 45 degrees to the right."

Skyfury gave her rider a curious look, but did as he asked, all the while he simply held onto the arrow nocked in the string as long as he could. As soon as she had reached the correct height and angle, he let loose the large arrow, straight for the wyvern. The Silver wyvern heard the arrows flight and started to bank to its right. This caused the arrow to instead of smashing into its skull, instead to penetrate into its shoulder.

The Rathalos began to fly away from the pair back towards where the others where.

"Damn it...Skyfury! Pursue!" Steven grunted as he nocked another arrow. He flipped a switch on the arrow as Skyfury wheeled around and gave chase, occasionally launching her own fireballs at the retreating wyvern. He then pulled out a vial from a puch on Skyfury's saddle and poured it over the tip of the arrow. "Skyfury, breath a stream of fire, but don't make it into a fireball...I've got an idea!"

The wyvern got a glimmer in her eye as she understood her rider's plan and gave a quick chuckle before she hovered and let loose a wide stream of fire. Steven took aim and let loose the arrow -through- the fire. The arrow caught fire and then split into multiple arrows. One hit each wing membrane, one hit the base of the wings connecting them to the body, and the last one hit the wyvern square at the base of the neck.

With the fire raging across its body the wyvern roared in pain, then started to shudder as its eyes glazed over. It struggled to stay airborne, but eventually plummeted to the ocean below.

Steven patted the vial that he had just emptied. "Paralysis potions. Never leave the village without them. Those combined with the fire and the plummet into the ocean at these heights should be enough to finish it off."

He then glanced back over in the direction of his comrades. "I wonder how they're doing?"

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"Raaaargh!" Alisdair and Ikiknue roared together. They had barrel rolled earlier and were now somehow parallel with their pursuer. Both wyverns were snapping at each other's necks with their immense jaws, all whilst Alisdair tried to slash the opponents wings with his great sword without hitting Ikiknues.

"Feck it...Ikiknue, you better catch me if this goes wrong!" Alisdair yelled over the roars of the wyverns and their fires. The wyvern gave him a quick glance as if to say"What the hell are you planning?"

He quickly undid the straps holding him to the saddle...and then leapt off of Ikiknue's back towards the other wyvern!

"Geronimo!" he yelled as he hung in mid-air between the two wyverns for what seemed to be an eternity before landing on their enemie's back. In reality it had happened in the space of a few seconds.

"What the hell made me think this was a good idea?" he yelled as he grimly held onto his sword with one hand whilst holding onto a ridge spike with the other the wind buffeting against his armour and threatening to dislodge him.

Eventually dragging himself into a more crouched position, Alisdair struggled to stay upright and on the wyvern who was trying to buck him off whilst fighting Ikiknue.

"Rrraaaaaaaarrghh!" he yelled as he swung the Eviscerator with one hand overhead and into the immense wyverns back. The Silver Rathalos roared in pain and fury that this little human was slicing into him and he couldn't get to the bastard.

With one last buck, the wyvern managed to dislodge Alisdair from his back, but he was still holding onto his sword, which simply got dragged with him down through the wyverns side. The Silver Rathalos roared in pain as the many blades sliced through its back and side as Alisdair held onto the hilt.

However, gravity decided that enough was enough. Alisdair and the sword eventually fell from the Silver Rathalos, leaving a massive bloody trail behind them in the wind. Ikiknue left his opponent and divebombed to catch up to his partner.

"Any time you're ready!" Alisdair yelled as Ikiknue drew parallel with him. The wyvern gave a harumph. "Oh just save my ass already!" he said, sheathing the blade into its holster on his back with some difficulty. Ikiknue dove past Alisdair and then came back up, grabbing him in his feet by both of his arms.

They both watched as their adversary plummeted to the ground below from the massive lacerated wound he had just recieved.

"Phew...score one for us. How you think the other's are faring with theirs?" Alisdair asked Ikiknue.

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"Alright...how the hell did we wind up like this?" Grant yelled as he struggled to keep his helmet on. Ryakko had flipped round to be underneath their pursuer and both wyverns were busy trying to claw each other's underbellys...however Grant and Hali were now hanging upside down, strapped into the saddle on Ryakko's back.

"Better question Master would be, how do we fight like this?" Hali yelled into the wind. Between the two of them they had a hammer, and two short swords.

Grant knocked on Ryakko's back to get his attention. "Yo! Big guy! We're loving the ocean view and all...but would you mind if you spun you and your friend around so me and Hali can get in on some of the action?" he yelled at Ryakko.

The wyvern gave a quick roar in agreement and disengaged from the silver rathalos by dropping back so that he would shoot past them, before rotating to an upright position and then speeding up to catch up with the enemy.

Grant gave a quick glance in Alisdair's direction as he watched him jumping from one wyvern to the other.

"Hali...that crazy bastard's just given me an insane idea!" he yelled with a manic grin on his face. Hali looked over at Alisdair then back at Grant, then at Ryakko, then back to Grant, then at the enemy wyvern, then back to Grant. Sadly, she could see where this was going.

"Master...I've got a bad feeling about this plan of yours..." she groaned as Grant started to grin even wider.

"Ryakko! How do you feel about grabbing that bugger's tail?" Grant asked his wyvern. Ryakko looked at Grant in puzzlement, then at the wyvern in front of them, then at Grant who was pointing at Alisdair. Sadly for Hali, Ryakko began to grin as well once he saw what Alisdair was doing.

Ryakko sped up and then clamped on hard with his jaws on the Rathalos' tail. The wyvern roared at the sudden change in tactics, and glared at the younger wyvern. Grant undid the straps holding him to the saddle, picked up the hammer in its saddle sheath, stood up on Ryakko's back his armour's skill keeping him from flying off in the wind. He leaned the shaft of the hammer over his right shoulder, its head just behind his own.

"Hali. You wait here and keep Ryakko company. I'll probably need someone to catch me in a minute or so." he said non-chalantly with a large grin on his face, before he ran across Ryakko's neck towards the tail of the enemy Rathalos. Once he reached the tail, he jumped over Ryakko's head and landed on the large tail of the Rathalos who struggled even more after figuring out what this human planned.

Ryakko kept a firm grip on the tail, all those tug of war games with Grant when he was a chick were paying off.

"Hello there." Grant said as he reached the wyvern's head. "Now that wasn't very nice of you attacking us like that. I'm afraid you're going to have to be taught a lesson." he said, grasping his hammer in both hands before swinging it down on the rathalos' head. It roared as it tried to buck him off of it's head, whilst Grant kept smashing his hammer into its head over and over again.

After what felt like hours, the Rathalos slumped and started to nose dive for the ground as it lost consciousness.

"Uh-oh..." Grant said before he lost his footing and fell off. Ryakko let go of the dead weight and flew after Grant. When Ryakko and Hali drew level with him, she gave him a look of curiosity.

"Need a lift?" she asked innocently.

"Aye if you don't mind. There seems to be this big green and brown thing coming very quickly towards me." Grant replied.

"Hmm...I think that's called the ground. You sure you don't want to be on it?" she asked, reaching out a hand towards him.

"Not right now I don't think so. Besides, I think at this speed I'd make an awful squishy mess on the ground." he chuckled as he grabbed hold of Hali and swung onto Ryakko's back, as he pulled up to a safer height.

"Hmm, now how are they doing with their guests?" Grant asked Hali as he looked in the direction of the others.

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"Gurren, let's take this pest down." Stuart said calmly as he could. Gurren nodded and then conducted a loop de loop and got behind the opposing Rathalos. Stuart took aim and started blasting the Rathalos from behind whilst Gurren alternated between poison and fire breath attacks. The Rathalos dodged several of the shots and then put on the brakes which caused Stuart and Gurren to soar past him.

"Shit...he's behind us now..." Stuart grumbled as he ducked an incoming fireball. He twisted round and started belting out arrow after arrow, some splitting some not.

This Rathalos seemed to be able to dodge shot after shot, only a few of them making contact with the wyvern's hide. One of them the wyvern even caught in his mouth like a dog catching a stick, and others he grabbed in its talons, before snapping them like twigs. "This bastards mocking me!"

He rummaged with one hand in a pack on the saddle until he found a spherical object.

"Gurren! Flash bang incoming!" Gurren closed her eyes as Stuart hurled the bomb towards the wyvern. The device burst in front of its eyes and momentarily blinded it. Gurren took this chance to turn around and speed towards the Rathalos.

Before the Rathalos could react, Gurren body-slammed into the wyvern and then breathed a stram of fire laced with poison directly into its face where it could avoid it. Stuart took this chance to let loose and arrow into each one of the Rathalos' eyes.

The Rathalos shrieked and roared in pain as its sight was lost to arrow and flame, its scales starting to crack under the flame and his flesh exposed to the poisons in Gurren's breath. To add insult to injury, Gurren decided to rip its throat out with a vicious bite across its neck, ripping off a good amount of the newly exposed flesh.

They watched as the Rathalos flew off as best it could before finally plummeting to the ground below.

"Now then...how did the other's handle theirs?" Stuart asked.

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"That..was...intense!" Grant exclaimed when they had all gotten back to the cave. The wyverns were all checking each other for any wounds or cracks in their scales whilst their human partners went over their own battles, whilst checking their own armour and weapons.

"I honestly thought I was going to go splat when I tried that jumping thing." Alisdair said with an insane giggle. The adrenaline was still kicking through his system.

Hali simply shook her head at the pair of them. "Whatever possessed you two to try that I will never understand."

"We were armed with close combat weapons...how else were we supposed to fight something in the air?" asked Grant.

Steven coughed politely and then patted the Bow across his lap. Stuart just chuckled at Grant's face as it absorbed that fact.

"You didn't think to check the back end of the saddle?" asked Steven, walking over to the saddles.

"What you mean?" asked Alisdair curiously. Steven pulled out a folded bunch of metal and wood from the back satchel on the saddle, then pressed a button on it. It unfolded out into a Bow.

"Inside the same satchel you'll find a quiver of arrows." Steven said to the bewildered pair. Stuart continued chuckling.

"You're telling me-" started Alisdair.

"That there were Bows in our saddles?" finished Grant. Steven nodded then saw the two of them advancing on him. "When were you going to tell us this?"

"I'm sure I told you before we took off earlier." he explained, slowly backing up towards Skyfury. Alisdair unsheathed the Eviscerator from his back and Grant unsheathed his Hammer. "Now gentlemen...easy now, easy." Steven said before making a break for it.

The pair of them gave chase after him. Stuart chuckled even harder at this until it turned into full on laughter. Hali just sighed.

"I'm thinking that if we had some instrument totting Felyne's here there would be some appropriate music going on here...maybe that music from Henny Bill or something like that." she said with a sigh.

The three of them kept running for the better part of an hour before collapsing on the ground and laughing at what just happened.

"You...didn't...wonder...what that...thing was...poking you...in the back?" Steven puffed out.

"I thought...it was just...one of...Ikiknue's spines." Alisdair explained, leaning on his Sword.

After another few hours they wrapped up any injuries they had sustained, and then patched up their wyverns. They then took the Aptonath back to the village, with Hali in tow.

"Why's she following us again?" asked Alisdair when they were halfway back to the village.

"I'm not following you." she said. "We're just going to the same place and you happen to be in front of me." she finished sticking her tongue out at him.

"Hey Steven, you figured out what that thing was that caused that storm?" asked Stuart whilst Hali and Alisdair continued pulling faces at one another. Steven had been pouring over all the scrolls he had on him.

"Grhm...I haven't the foggiest idea Stuart...according to the level playback on the armour-"

"Level playback?" he asked. Steven nodded.

"Aye, the level playback. Some monsters get a higher rating in terms of their strength and all that according to the Guild remember? What Psychic armour does is that it can register that monster's strength level and relay that info back to the Guild. According to this though...that monster broke it."

"What's the maximum level on that thing?" Stuart asked.

"9000 points." replied Steven. Stuart let off an impressed whistle. "Whatever that was, it was powerful, more so than a Fatalis. Or a group of them combined..."

Stuart sat back and thought about this. "Well...at least this little exercise has helped us to develop our aerial combat skills...if we ever run into that thing again we'll be at least prepared."

"About that... I think we may want to create sets of armour for the wyverns as well." suggested Steven. "Those Silver Rathalos almost had us a few times...and if this new monster is even more powerful than a Fatalis..." he left the thought hanging.

"I see what you mean...All right, so the plan is to try and somehow make armour for our wyverns...this should be interesting." Stuard chuckled. Meanwhile Hali and Alisdair were still bickering with one another. "Will you two cut that out! You're giving me a headache!"

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Sorry this chapter took so long...but I have been kinda busy with Uni, work and a case of writer's block at times writing this chapter. But in the end I think it's turned out quite nicely :)

By the way, if you reread this chapter...might I recommend that you start playing the songs "You're going down" by Sick Puppies during the Steven and the Stuart fights followed by "You're gonna go far kid" by Offspring for the Alisdair and Grant fights? Cus when I was writing that bit, those were the two songs that played when I was writing it.

That -may- have had an impact in the writing, I don't know :) I'll let you decide.

Hope you enjoyed this and please leave a review after the tone.

Beeeeep.

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